What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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1947 — The Hailey Ford dealership opened at 313 S. Second St. in downtown Rogers. According to the Oct. 15, 1947, Rogers Daily News, it was the only building in Benton County with a completely air-conditioned showroom and offices. Jack Cadelli of Fort Smith designed the Art Deco terrazzo floor in the foyer. And the modern phone system featured separate lines so several people could call in and out of the building at the same time. 1961 — Newt Hailey sold the dealership to a group of investors headed See Timeline Page 10 DECEMBER 9-15, 2018 WHAT'S UP! 9 and most accurate model" of the Van Winkle Mill, which existed between 1850 and 1890 east of Rogers. Bob Rich of Rogers volunteered his time to create the front end of an almost life-sized train engine and — on the other side of the gallery — a half-sized turquoise-colored 1950s kitchen as part of the interactive children's section. You'd swear both the refrigerator and the train were metal — until Robert Rousey, a volunteer who worked his way up to curator of education, knocks on them. They're wood — which should be no surprise, having seen the full-size stagecoach built by Rich and currently on exhibit in the museum's lobby. But museum staff members also put all of their skills to the test. Calloway was trained as an architect, and his expertise was "invaluable," Burroughs says, for understanding all of the codes and regulations that came into play during the renovation. Actually, he admits, the museum did pay an exhibit designer — briefly. "But what he created just was jarringly different from what we envisioned," Burroughs says. "We wanted this new museum to look and feel like the Rogers Historical Museum." 40 years in the making The story of the Rogers Historical Museum goes back to 1974, when councilwoman Opal Beck suggested creating a museum as the city's Bicentennial project. A nine-member commission was formed, with Vera Key as chairwoman, and on Oct. 25, 1975, the museum opened in a rented 1905 former bank building. Just seven years later, the Harold Hawkins family donated the 1895 Hawkins House on South Second Street, and by 1985, the museum was so popular an addition was needed — and was funded, named in honor of Key and completed by Dec. 5, 1987. Grass has never grown under the Rogers Historical Museum's feet. But when planning for another expansion began in 2006, success didn't come so easily. The first idea — to build a new structure — was rejected because of its price tag, Burroughs remembers. But when the Hailey Ford building became available in 2015, it offered not only plenty of space — an increase from 15,500 to more than 29,000 square feet — but a chance to renovate an historic 1947 structure. It didn't hurt that Burroughs is, in his own words, a little bit of a hoarder. People have offered him things over the years — a jail cell, a bunch of vintage doors, a tractor — and those serendipitous acquisitions have paid off. The jail cell, now featured in the museum's new America's Heartland Gallery, has been hugely popular with students, Rousey says. The old doors were recycled into reader rails — waist-high mountings for information — saving the museum some $300 per section. And the tractor? It's one of Burroughs' favorites in the collection. The Ford 8N, which dates to about NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK Robert Rousey (left), curator of education, and John Burroughs, director of the Rogers Historical Museum, talk about the child-sized kitchen built for the museum by Bob Rich of Rogers. Although it looks like it's metal, it's actually constructed of wood. See RHM Page 10 Pieces Of Rogers' Past Timeline File Photo The Attic, a popular hands-on section of the Rogers Historical Museum, remains open in the former gallery space at 322 S. Second St. That building, known as the Key Wing, will be home to the museum's education department.