Community project set to open early 2023
When the ribbon is officially cut on Museum of Pell City in coming weeks, the community will welcome a museum that is believed to have the potential to exceed the expectations of cities of comparable size.
It features an extensive, local exhibit tracing Pell City’s steps from mill town to global marketplace and the scores of people, places and events making its history in between.
“This museum represents a group of people whose love of history and preservation of it never wavered along the way despite the twists and turns of the road to get here. Its opening will be an historic day for our community because of their perseverance,” said Museum President Carol Pappas.
The museum is an impressive blend of the city’s history and the state’s history all under one roof – a 4,000 square foot suite on the second floor of the Pell City Municipal Complex.
Making Alabama, the state’s bicentennial exhibit awarded to Museum of Pell City by Alabama Humanities Alliance, showcases Alabama’s 200 years of statehood and beyond. Within that exhibit are artifacts and little-known nuggets of Pell City history weaved into the story that unfolds.
Just like the whistle that sounded at the turn of the 20th century signaling the beginning of shifts at Avondale Mills – Pell City Manufacturing in its early days – the museum will have its own replica of that whistle at the entrance to the local exhibit, signifying the start of a new day.
Museum cases, made possible through gifts from citizens, are full of artifacts that bring the stories and photos of Pell City history to life. Hundreds of old photos are accessed on computer tablets for each period of history. A simple swipe across the screen reveals photo after photo of the days that were.
An interior room has been built to house music history, art and sports, and the national impact of Pell Citians on all three.
Another section tells the story of service with organizations and individuals dedicating themselves in public service, military and civic arenas.
The exhibit housed for years in the county courthouse is featured as well as the places where memories were made – hangouts like the Rexall Drugs, Skad’s, Jill’s and Dairy Queen.
Alabama Power Foundation partnered with the museum on a project to build a working dam model to take visitors behind the scenes of Logan Martin Dam and the impact it has had on the region. A $45,000 grant from the Foundation made the stunning exhibit possible as well as other aspects of the museum.
Pell City is no longer a mill town, and a Global Marketplace section reflects exactly that – the evolution of Pell City as a player on the world stage in business.
The centerpiece of the museum is a Living History Studio, which will be used to record and produce oral history videos designed to capture recollections of events, people and places in the history of the community. Much of it was made possible through a $25,000 grant from the Pell City Rotary Community Foundation Endowment. “That grant will enable us to achieve so many of the goals we have for this ongoing program.”
A mobile video team of experienced videographers and interviewers is being dispatched on location for those who cannot travel. In addition, a special project involving veterans of three wars – World War II, Korean and Vietnam – is making use of a partnership between the museum and the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home in Pell City. A nearly $9,000 major grant from Alabama Humanities Alliance is the catalyst for the launch of the veterans program.
A control room adjacent to the studio is planned as a working classroom for students to not only develop an appreciation for history through work with these oral histories but to develop skills in video production, audio, lighting, interviewing and research.
Museum First Vice President Deanna Lawley is spearheading the Living History program. “Since 1968, when my husband, Barnett, brought me to Pell City, I have been enriched by tales of an agricultural area with a Mayberry-paced town where everyone set their watch by the mill whistle. How quickly it began to transform with the damming of a river,” she said.
“We are losing the voices that make you smile, laugh, cry or reflect with their wonderful stories. Our goal is to have a living museum; the oral histories will provide that feeling before more are silenced.”
Videos will be preserved, the audio transcribed and word searchable for research, and they can be accessed by the public and for use in the classroom. “What a wonderful opportunity we have to not only preserve the memories of eye witnesses to history but to share them to educate and engage audiences,” Pappas said.
Vision being realized
Museum of Pell City was a vision long before this suite became its home. That vision took many forms. The late Mary Mays, long known as an advocate for historic preservation, spearheaded a movement to place museum cases full of artifacts in the county courthouse in Pell City.
Others worked toward restoring the Mays House in Cropwell. Still others created April Walking Tours of historic downtown Pell City.
Another group brought the Smithsonian and Alabama Humanities Alliance exhibit, The Way We Worked, to Pell City in 2014 at the Center for Education and Performing Arts, CEPA, and created an impressive local history exhibit. That display, melded with the Smithsonian’s exhibition saw more than 7,000 people tour during its six-week stay.
That exhibition is widely viewed as the spark, the tipping point that caught fire and convinced a grassroots group that Pell City could indeed have its own museum. “So many people who toured that exhibition approached us about establishing a museum,” said Pam Foote, who served as project director of The Way We Worked and is now second vice president of the nonprofit that created the museum. “It was gratifying, yes, but it also represented a huge hill to climb.”
There was no place to house it. How could a single exhibit grow into a museum?
So, Foote and Lawley, co-chairs of the 2014 event, along with Pappas asked the city to store it, realizing it could be the nucleus of a museum. For seven years, it remained intact in the basement of the municipal complex while they pushed for a home.
There was talk of locating it in the long vacant administrative building, the single structure still standing on the Avondale Mills property, and that course was pursued for a few years.
After the Pell City Library moved into its new quarters in the municipal complex, that vacant building was seen as a temporary solution on location. The group pursued its prospects as well.
Then, Councilman Jay Jenkins had an idea in 2021, and his ‘what if’ turned into the museum’s home – two floors up from its storage in the municipal complex. The museum occupies a massive suite on the second floor.
“The city has been a terrific supporter of this museum,” Pappas said. “We couldn’t ask for better partners than the mayor, city manager and council. They provided us the space, infrastructure support and best of all, moral support for this project. Without them, we never would have made it this far.”
Pappas had high praise for the community and the support it has shown in rallying around the museum opening. “I cannot say enough about our volunteers. They are the linchpin in all of this – small jobs, large jobs and everything from fetching and toting to building and painting – holding it all together and making it happen. Our board had to create and establish this museum from the ground up, and they deserve a debt of thanks for stepping up to volunteer to steer this ship.”
As with any major project, funding is critical. “This museum would not have been possible without the financial support of so many people and organizations. When we say grassroots, we mean it. Over the past year, tens of thousands of dollars have poured into our treasury from ‘seed money’ by business people to sizable grants from civic, business, governmental and cultural organizations to wide-ranging individual contributions, memorials and social media fundraisers,” Pappas said.
Substantial additional support has come from the St. Clair County Commission, retired state Senator Jim McClendon and Congressman Mike Rogers. “Our sincere thanks goes to our elected leadership for their commitment to this project,” Pappas said.
Our Museum 100 – the 100 founding members who gave $100 – shows the strength of what can happen when they work together to raise $10,000 in a community like ours. That’s what it has been about all along and will be in the future – making history together.”
After the public ceremony officially cutting the ribbon, plans call for the museum to be open Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and by special appointment for groups.
