If we had typed this page 19 years ago, we would have included things such as renovating the administration building, forge, service station, & center hall, acquiring an original homestead, furnishing it, and turning it into a living museum, erecting the original gas pumps and signs at the Service Station, setting up the Craft Store, planting flowers, restoring old photographs, establishing an endowment fund, and many other things. This is why we believe all things are possible, with a little help.
Where do we plan to go from here?
We have plans to reconstruct the South side of the center complex. It originally consisted of the cooperative store, weaving room, and other ventures.
We plan to renovate the recently acquired school buildings and look forward to several possible uses, including a public library, eatery, a New Deal Repository, and perhaps, rental to area entrepreneurs.
We plan to expand our educational programs to be able to provide more information about Arthurdale and its history to the county, regional, and state school systems. We plan to develop programs aimed at specific grade levels and with the help of other historical groups in Preston County, create worthwhile day field trips to Preston County for our state's youth. Our educational expansion also includes reaching to colleges and universities, whose students can research, in our archives, the New Deal era. In the timeline of history, the creation of Arthurdale was just a few milli-seconds ago, however, it has been over 69 years since Arthurdale was established. History is a book that never gets finished. Now that we are in the next millennium, students, and adults, need to realize that history did not come to an end in 1899.
We plan to acquire more artifacts for our 1930s New Deal Museum, so that we may, someday, become the "place to be" for 1930s memorabilia. This is not an easy task. Since the 30s was the Depression era, many people did not have the means to afford things, making acquiring them now much more difficult.
We plan to have A Wagner Homestead E-15 open 7 days a week, all year long.
We plan to increase our involvement with the people of Arthurdale and the surrounding areas. With our renovated Center Hall, we can hold dinners, craft classes, dances, dance classes, seminars, town meetings, children's activities, flea markets, and more. Just let us know what you'd like, and we'll try to do it.