Week 76: International Museum Day

The American Bicentennial in 1976 brought with it a swell of patriotic sentiments and an unprecedented interest in history. In the years leading up to the Bicentennial, this newfound interest in history led hundreds of communities across the country to examine their own history more closely and to open museums. One such community was Chandler.

In 1969, a group of Chandler residents met to organize a local historical society to help preserve Chandler’s history. In May of that year, Councilmember Billy Speights circulated a letter in the community calling for all interested parties to meet at the Chandler Fire Station (there was only one at the time) “to elect officers and form committees for the proposed City of Chandler Historical Museum.” The list of charter members read like a who’s who of notable Chandler residents, and included names like Andersen, Humphreys, and Earnhardt. Bert Cummings was elected as the society’s first president.

Very quickly, President Cummings began the work of obtaining a regular place for the society to meet and set up a museum. In a July, 1969, memo to the City Council, Cummings asked them to consider an agreement to make the Fire Station Building the home for the museum. Shortly thereafter an agreement was executed allowing for the creation of a Chandler Historical Society museum in the old Fire Station on Chicago Street, just west of Arizona Avenue.

Preparations began for the development of a museum. Capital for operations had to be raised, display cases had to be made, and artifacts needed to be collected to fill those cases. Bake sales, home tours, rummage sales, and donations built a monetary foundation for the museum. Gail Gaddis, the tech teacher at Chandler High, had his students build display cases. And multiple calls for artifacts produced a modest collection for exhibits. Speights and Cummings did the labor to convert the fire station into a more suitable space for a museum, including covering windows and painting. The Weeders Garden Club landscaped the building.

Finally, after two years of work, the society was ready to open their museum. An open house in July, 1972, was a teaser for the grand opening that fall. On November 19, the society held a grand opening for the new Chandler Historical Museum. Mayor Raul Navarrete was the first guest to sign the register, and after a few words of praise for the historical society, he and members of the organization dedicated and buried a time capsule, to be opened 50 years after the opening of the museum.

After more than a decade of operation, Mayor Jerry Brooks commissioned a study in 1985 to examine the feasibility of building a new historical museum. The fire station had been adequate for the museum to get its start, but it had outgrown the building and required a new home. The study found that the community supported the idea of a new museum. While a suitable location and funding options were explored, the museum moved into the recently vacated library building on Commonwealth Avenue. This coincided with a monumental event in the history of the museum – in 1986 the historical society hired their first staff member to run the museum.

In 2004, and again in 2007, Chandler residents voted to support a new Chandler Museum by approving bonds for the construction of a new building. In 2008, the City took over operation of the Chandler Museum in preparation for construction of the new building.

But not everything went according to plan. The Great Recession pushed back the project, while storm damage to the building on Commonwealth caused the Museum to move out of the building permanently in 2012.

Today, the Chandler Museum operates in the historic McCullough-Price House. In addition to the historic building, the Museum operates Tumbleweed Ranch in Tumbleweed Park. Known by many as the location of the ostrich races during the Ostrich Festival, the Ranch has several historic buildings which are open to the public periodically throughout the year, and sees several thousand school children come through on tours during cooler months. The Museum is also a leader in digitizing museum collections through its wiki, ChandlerpediA.

The new museum project is about to kick off, with the new building to be constructed adjacent to the McCullough-Price House. The time capsule was dug up when the museum moved from the fire station, and is currently sitting in the Museum’s collection storage facility waiting to be opened in 2022, during the Museum’s 50^th anniversary celebrations.