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Beginnings
The Gladewater Historical Society
began work in the 1970’s when they promoted the Gladewater
Centennial Celebration. That is when plans for the museum first
began. Articles, stories and the history of Gladewater were
gathered. Finally in on August 11, 1987 the
Gladewater
Historical Society became officially chartered as a non-profit
educational association that collects, preserves and interprets the
history of the city of Gladewater and the immediate area.
Eventually the name of the society was officially changed to
Gladewater Museum Association and it is also known as the East
Texas Museum at
Gladewater.
A building at 512 Live Oak,
Gladewater was leased in 2002 that was used as a museum depository;
place for building exhibits; offices and as a meeting place for
member meetings. Before this building was leased, several of the
artifacts and large furniture pieces gathered for a museum were
stored in several places around town. For instance, the large floor
to ceiling cabinets that are from Wyche Drug and later Day Drug
stores have been moved several times from storage place to storage
place.
Present
Building
History
The museum is now located in the
building know as the Ellen
Bauman Community Center which
was built in 1939 during the Art Deco Period. This was also during
the time of the oil boom when Gladewater was climbing toward its
peak as an influence in Gregg
County. The unique history
of this period of design makes it an ideal building to house a
museum that tells the rich history of the city and the people who
built it.
Doc Shepperd was the Gregg County
Commissioner at the time of the building’s completion. He arranged
for the building to be used, rent free, to house a library for the
community. The second floor was used by various community
organizations for meetings and social gatherings. The library moved
into a new home in 1973. Since that time the building was used for
various activities by community groups. The last use of the
building before the museum leased the building from Gregg
County was Meals-On-Wheels
(bottom floor) and the top floor was no longer used.
Official Opening to Present
On Friday November 4, 2005, the East
Texas Museum at
Gladewater
held a Ribbon Cutting officially opening the museum. On Saturday,
November 5th at 10:00 am the museum was finally opened to
the public. It is now open on Saturdays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.,
except for the last two weeks of the year depending upon when the
holidays fall. At present, the museum if totally staffed with
volunteers.
The grand opening featured the
‘James G Hineman Collection’ which includes the World’s largest
collection of Rooster related memorabilia. The collections also
includes a large variety of Cigarette Memorabilia, an outstanding
representation of wash boards, Oil Lamps and Lanterns, some of which
are still on display in the museum.
Mr. Hineman was
born Jan
29, 1922 in Longview, TX. He was a veteran of World War II and the
Korean War. After World War II he returned to East Texas to
complete his higher education. He taught art in Dallas while
working on his master’s degree. Then he taught art at Longview High
School for 26 years. Many of
his students won state contests and several have become art
teachers. He enjoyed antiques and gave several collections to
museums. Mr. Hineman passed away on Saturday, August 14, 2004.
About The
East Texas
Museum at Gladewater Displays:
We are proud to
present our displays of
Gladewater and
East Texas related artifacts. We have assembled a sampling of items
to give you a feel for the future displays to be presented for your
viewing enjoyment. There is a Gladewater Depot room with artifacts
and objects from the
Gladewater
Depot and Railroad related items. We have our ‘Pink Room’ which is
set up with a sampling of our period furnishings generously donated
by many local residents. We also have the ‘Business and Education
room with Our Barber Shop area featuring Luke Fisher’s Barber Chair
and several accessories from his shop. There is a School section,
Business section and we could not open without and Oil field
section.
We have several
old wide angle photographs of the Oil Boom Days in
Gladewater that
were reproduced and mounted for us by Brookshire’s Food Markets
(Gladewater) from original photographs donated to the Museum. Many
of the mural photographs in the Brookshire’s Market were made from
the East Texas Museum at Gladewater photos.
As articles of
the Hineman Collection are packed away, we have presented several
other artifact collections such as items related to the
Gladewater
Round-Up Rodeo; Gladewater citizens World War Memorabilia; and Elvis
Presley items.
Special Exhibits
April 12th
through
April 27th 2008 – Honoring Hometown Sports Heroes -
Exhibit Hours:
Monday through Saturdays
10:00 am to 4:00
pm;
Sundays
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
May 2008 – Jesca
Jones Quilt Show will be held at the museum.
Upcoming
attractions:
Special Rodeo
exhibit for the 71st annual
Gladewater
Round-Up Rodeo
September 22nd
and 23rd 2008 – Arts & Crafts Festival Weekend – Sell
Cornbread and Beans – watch for special event at museum as well.
Sources of
Artifacts and Objects:
As you will see
when going through our displays, many of your friends and neighbors
have donated artifacts and objects to the museum. We thank you
all. Without the participation of the members of our community we
would have nothing saved from the past to bring back memories or to
show the younger generations. Do you have something that we could
use for a display at the museum? Think about it and let us know.
Signs within the
Museum
The museum is a
no smoking facility. You will notice many ‘Please Do Not Touch’
signs through out the museum. The displays are very open to enhance
your viewing pleasure and we ask that you respect the signs to help
us preserve the objects on display. You will also note that we have
many fragile and unique on display especially in the Hineman
Exhibits. For this reason we require young children to be
accompanied by a responsible adult at all times.
Donations,
Membership and Volunteers
The museum does
not charge an admission fee, but cash donations are gladly
accepted. Donations of artifacts or objects are also welcome. We
are always happy to accept new members into the association
(membership applications are available at the front desk). The
museum is totally run by volunteers. We can always use more help.
Membership
meetings are held at the museum on the last Tuesday of each month at
6 pm.
Please come and join us at a meeting.
Questions or
Comments
If you have any
questions, please feel free to ask any of the museum staff members.
If we don’t have the answer, we will be glad to get you an answer.
Comments are always welcome. We may need your help to identify
some of our objects or artifacts, especially in the area of the old
photographs. Be sure to read the exhibit cards for the items and
let us know if we have something mislabeled or if you have
additional information about the item. You can help make our
community museum a bigger and better place for all to see.
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