Washington County Enterprise-Leader
New Curator On Site At Cane Hill Museum
CANEHILL — Historic Cane Hill Museum is expanding its hours from one day a week to four days a week with the help of a new museum curator.
Lawrence McElroy holds a master’s degree in museum studies. This is his first time to be on site with a museum.
“We have big things planned to take the museum to the next level,” said McElroy, who started as curator last week. He will serve in the role as a volunteer.
The museum will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday.
McElroy has worked 40 years in the medical field and decided to go back to graduate school for museum studies. He had looked around at small museums and at one point talked to Bobby Braly, executive director of Historic Cane Hill, about coming in and assessing the Cane Hill Museum and making recommendations for improvements.
Braly talked to McElroy about moving to Cane Hill as curator and McElroy said, “I jumped on it.”
McElroy also is a painter and plans to use one of the studios on the second floor of the A.R. Carroll Drugstore located next door. This building was restored and opened to the public in May 2014.
McElroy did not know any Cane Hill history prior to moving here
and has had to start from scratch learning about the community. He’s been excited to learn that the museum has books from Cane Hill College, which held the first public library in the state.
He has some ideas for the future, including a reading room and making the front of the museum more of a gathering place. Another idea is an exhibit on architecture found in Cane Hill.
“In general, what I want to bring to the museum is to give it a narrative and show how all this relates to someone who lives somewhere else,” McElroy said. “I want people to learn something and have a meaningful experience.”
Braly said having a curator on site will help with the focus of Historic Cane Hill to draw people to the community and provide more information and educate them.
Historic Cane Hill Museum is located at 14335 South Highway 45. The building originally was constructed in the mid 1940s as Shaker Yates Grocery Store. The building has also been home to an antique store, a trophy and wooden train whistle manufacturing workshop and post office.
Visitors can see exhibits that include the following about Canehill: a time-line of history, a 1920s front porch, agriculture, a history of Cane Hill College in pictures and words, fashion through the years and the old Canehill Post Office with original post office boxes. Other exhibits tell about the Bank of Cane Hill, including the 3,500-pound safe used in the bank, and the Civil War Battle of Cane Hill.