[ back ]
News today, history tomorrow
(by Barbara Christian - March 28, 2012)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
News today, history tomorrow
What follows is as plug for the Chagrin Falls Historical Society. Well, maybe not a plug exactly, because that indicates the promotion of a profit-making business, and the historical society is a not-for-profit organization. Let's say it's a tribute ... and a suggestion.
The Chagrin Falls Historical Society is made up of a group of dedicated volunteers who spend a lot of time living in the past, happily so.
The mostly unpaid staff accepts and catalogs artifacts from Chagrin Falls' early days. Besides the physical items, the museum maintains an archive of written materials, diaries and copies of past and present local newspapers, ever mindful that what is happening now in our town is the stuff of history in the future.
Through the years, these backward glances have produced a number of local-interest publications and a nearly 300-page large-format history book.
As if their plate was not piled high enough, members now are putting together a theatrical production about Chagrin Falls men who served in the Civil War. Watch for details.
The organization plans programs, including an annual potluck dinner, a soups-and-breads luncheon and regular field trips to historic sites, and members are kept abreast of it all through a newsletter published with amazing frequency. Add the help extended to people working on genealogy, and you have to wonder how this small but mighty staff and members do it all.
Those historical society members who collect, catalog and look after these things are hoarders of local history and hawk eyes of the historical record of a tiny dot on the map named Chagrin Falls.
To that last point, we are willing to bet the folks who gather at the Walnut Street museum each Thursday afternoon already are hawk-eying this for inaccuracies. We await their call.
Indeed, the historical society has its own special personality. That's why its members have renamed their group "the hysterical society," a loving poke in the ribs of their own eccentricities.
From our point of view, among the more maddening quirks is the group's way of managing their news. This translates to a steadfast "no comment" -- at least until all of the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed, lest breaking news bring embarrassment to the organization. We know they do this out of love and to get it right without confusion.
But lately, news surrounding the historical society has been difficult to keep under wraps. Word has come that the Chagrin Falls Fire Department needs more space and the historical society and museum will be asked to vacate the village-owned, rent-free digs it has occupied for decades.
To get ready for that inevitability, the organization has been focusing not on the past but on its future. Two recent false starts on securing a new home were well publicized, much to the dismay of some society members. But we wonder why all of this reticence and resistance?
News is just history told in real time, and we can't think of a better epic story of historic proportions than this one, which will tell future generations of the dramatic efforts of their predecessors as they traveled a rocky road toward finding a new historical society home.
[ back ]
