The City of Claremore, Okla., and the Rogers County Historical Society are in a spat over the use of a recently vacated building, reported the Claremore Daily Progress.
The city wants the former Fire Administration Building at 121 N. Weenonah Ave. to be used as the new space for Department of Public Safety driver’s licensing testing offices there, thus saving the city at least $10,000 a year.
The historical society wants the building to house a local history museum. Rogers County Historical Society President Fran Jones made her pitch at a recent City Council meeting:
“The (library) building itself is of historical significance, named for Will Rogers and having been constructed in the 1930’s — something which would not be important in the least to the licensing bureau, with whom the city has an agreement, but of utmost importance to the RCHS,” Jones began. “Currently, the RCHS has a 99-year lease on the adjoining Lynn Riggs Museum —built with private donations — and we feel being given the additional space (of the building) would be the perfect compliment to a Claremore City Museum. This would allow us to feature even more notable and famous citizens from Claremore among our exhibits.”
Jones told Council members the location was of particular importance as it “essentially anchors” the neighborhood which the RCHS hopes will become the city’s “Historic District,” along with the Belvidere Mansion, the carriage house, the Pink House, the (historic) Presbyterian Church and the old high school.
“Our city’s rich history is too important for us not to have a permanent display in a proper permanent home for a treasured collection of Claremore-related memorabilia, photographs, antiques, and historic artifacts,” Jones said. “From a business standpoint, housing a Claremore museum at this particular location will encourage tourists and locals alike to increasingly drive east of Route 66, down Will Rogers Boulevard to find the museum — in the process, drawing business to the downtown district, not to mention the Belvidere (Mansion) and the Pink House when they cross the tracks to the old library.”
I don’t have particularly strong feelings about this. Any enthusiasm for a museum that might house some Route 66 memorabilia is dampened by the building being more than four blocks from Route 66. A few travelers on the Mother Road might visit it, but not without a lot of marketing and signage.
And the counterproposal from the city seems fairly compelling. Savings of at least $10,000 a year for a relatively small municipality such as Claremore isn’t chicken feed.
If you’re going to have a historical museum, putting it on a location on Oklahoma 66 is a lot more optimal.