A 100-year-old
blacksmith shop will be at the heart of the Temple
Museum, which will focus on the history of Temple,
Oklahoma, from the dinosaur days to the heyday of the
B&O Cash Store to the present.
Harold Powell bought
the blacksmith shop in 1978 with the dream of turning
it into a museum. In 1999, Mr. Powell and some
neighbors put together the Temple Museum Association.
They're raising money and firming up plans to build a
museum around the blacksmith shop to make Mr.
Powell's dream come true.
Temple, founded in
1902, celebrated its centennial in September 2002.
A building next to the post office will be the temporary home of the Temple Musuem Association.
Exhibits
The
B&O Cash Store
put Temple on the map in the early 1900s. People came from 80
miles around by wagon and horse and buggy to shop at the
"world's largest country store'' started by Temple
brothers Bob and Otho Mooney. The museum will include
photographs, catalogs and artifacts to bring to life booming
times that the store brought to Cotton County.
The Blacksmith Shop, first built by blacksmith Ed
Kloeckler in 1903 on the site directly east of the
current city hall. The wooden building burned in
1920. The metal blacksmith shop that replaced it will
remain in tact at the center of the museum, including
some tools of a wheel right, who once occupied the
space.
Historic Oklahoma Bricks
will make up a brick deck inside the blacksmith shop within
the museum. Brick manufacturers that helped build Oklahoma
imprinted the names of towns and counties where they operated
on the top of some bricks. A sampling of those bricks,
courtesy of Tab Lewis, past president of the International
Brick Collectors Association, will go in the deck.
Photographic timeline depicting life in Temple from
1900 to now will stretch across the east wall of the new
building.
Geneaological information on local families will be
stored in a special section of the Temple Museum. Residents
and former residents are invited to share their family
information here.
Histories of Residents of the community will include
pre- and post-Columbian Indians, the black population and
European settlers.
Newspapers published in Cotton County will be gathered
and stored in the museum where they will be available for
researchers and the general public.
A Community Garden will be installed at the south
entrance. The garden will be available, along with the
covered patio, as a gathering place and for community
activities.
Plans
Current plans call for a 3,700-square-foot
insulated, air conditioned metal building to cover the
blacksmith shop and provide new space. Estimated cost of the
building is $185,000. The association has 70 charter members
and has raised $8,400.
The Board
The Temple Museum
Association is run by a board of Temple area residents,
including Harold Powell, Lois Powell, Tab Lewis, Nadine
Gibson, Jay Driskill, Mary Spannagel, Charles Sparks, Billie
Jeffrey and Richard Glenn. If you're interesting in joining
the board contact Mr. Powell at
Contact Us
For more information about the
website templemuseum@aol.com For
museum information send an E-mail to
