Right between Woodland Veterans Park and the Pottawatomie County courthouse sits a building that holds decades of Shawnee history.
This building saw its first “large” title in 1905 as the Carnegie Library, which was built to replace Shawnee’s first public library. Shawnee was given a $15,000 grant to build the library; it once featured a dome, but a fire in December of 1929 brought great damages. During the Great Depression, budgets had fallen short, and the original dome and ornate trim was not replaced. The Pottawatomie County courthouse was later built in 1934. The library was relocated in 1989, and renovation took place in 1992. Years after this, the building became home to the District Attorney’s Office.
Today, the building continues its life of legacy and will soon become a Veterans Museum to honor local heroes.
The Pottawatomie County Veterans Memorial Group of Oklahoma has taken the task of bringing new life to this building.
Members of the group include Bill Ford the board president and Chairman of Shawnee Milling Company; James Bryce, a committee member; Kerri Keck, a member and veteran; Barbara White, the VFW Auxiliary President; Doug Warren, the Ambassador for the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame; Donna Warren, a Gold Star Mother; Keith Dipatri, the American Legion Post 16 Commander; Patrick Koch, the VFW Post 1317 Commander, and Marvin Warren, a veteran and Gold Star Father.
Together, this group is focusing on honoring our local veterans and their families through a museum and community engagement.
“James and I talked to the DA because we had heard they were overwhelmed with caseloads and looking for a new place,” said Ford. “This is when we began to keep our eyes open to help the DA find the place across the street. When that happens, like anything in government, it takes time. When they did move across, we came before the county commissioners and told them what we would like to do.”
Ford first started with the group in 2005 and Bryce joined in 2008. Both members, along with many others, have been working for a long time to bring the Woodland Veterans Memorial Park to Shawnee. Ford shared it took a total of 18 years for them to get the park in place. Their current mission for the museum is proving to take a few less years than the park.
“We are planning for the first floor to be a veterans’ welcome center and the second floor will be a memorial to all of the veterans in the Spanish War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Where each of the rooms upstairs were DA staff offices, those will be turned into different memorial areas,” said Ford.
The group shared that the welcome center on the first floor should be finished in a month, or two at the most. Bryce also shared that the county has been very helpful by supporting their renovations.
“The collaboration between the county and what was a city group, the veterans committee, still is a city group but it was originally formed to create the veterans’ park. Now we’ve migrated into creating a museum. The city owns this building, but the county has a 99-year lease on it so that is why we went to the county to get this building,” said Bryce.
Just like any other county building, the county will be taking on any janitorial services and maintenance to the building.
The upstairs will also contain historical books for people to research. While visitors will not be able to take any books home, there will be a seating area for reading and researching.
The hours will soon be set for the museum and once open, admission will be free to the public.
On Saturday mornings, there will be classes for kids to hear from different veterans.
“We want to engage in the community, we want kids today to learn to respect their freedom. We’ll have different vets come to talk about their experiences, patriotism, respect to the flag, and how to be good citizens,” said Ford.
The grand opening will be on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
If you would like to donate any artifacts related to the veterans museum, contact James Bryce at 405-432-9522. Please wait until Veterans Day to bring donations.
