Herington Historical Society and Museum

Goal: $5,000.00

Specific Need

In order to ensure the continued viability, operation, and growth of The Herington Historical Society and Museum, the Museum has established an Endowed Fund with the Community Foundation of Dickinson County. This fund allows us to make a long-term investment that will benefit the museum for years to come. These funds help us to offset operational costs, maintain the museum's collections, and to develop programs to share history information with adults and youth in the Herington area.

Mission

The purpose of the Herington Historical Society and Museum is to Preserve, Conserve, and Share the history of Herington, Kansas, its people, and its businesses.

Profile

The Herington Historical Society & Museum was chartered on March 25th, 1975. Herington postmaster George W. Kohls envisioned a museum to house a collection of artifacts pertaining to the history of Herington and it’s surrounding communities. Since the basement of the Herington Post Office was a seldom used area, Mr. Kohls obtained agreement for the museum collection to be housed there until funds for a suitable Museum building could be secured. For 8 years, the post office basement was the home of the museum’s collections. Meanwhile, a building fund was established and through contributions from local citizens, businesses, and organizations a new museum building at 800 South Broadway was dedicated in September of 1984. The museum soon outgrew its space. In 1987, in conjunction with the 100 year “Centennial Celebration” of the town of Herington, a museum addition expanding the floor space to 6000 square ft. along with the addition of a refurbished Rock Island Baggage car which would house the museum’s railroad artifacts, was added.

Today, the museum is home to thousands of artifacts, exhibits, and photographs pertaining to Herington and Southeast Dickinson County. A stone memorial in front of the museum was built from the remains of the historic Rock Island Depot after it was razed in 1985.

In addition to the many items on display, the Herington Museum also maintains all of the Herington historical newspapers from 1884 – 2010 on microfilm. We have many local church records, cemetery records, family history information and many other research resources.

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