WAKEFIELD MUSEUM HAPPINGS
New Addition to the Wakefield Museum
The Wakefield Museum Association is embarking on a fund raising campaign to finance the construction of an addition to the present structure. This Expansion Project will add over 10,000 square feet of much needed space to house and display hundreds of Wakefield area artifacts for which space is currently not available. This project will also include the installation of an elevator which will allow all visitors to view the many interesting displays on the lower level of the facility. Two fully- accessible restrooms will also be added to the building, making the Museum ADA compliant. The Wakefield Museum’s Building Expansion Campaign’s goal is to raise $575,000.00 by September 2019 for the construction of this addition. The Expansion Project needs your help to make the Expansion goal a reality! The Wakefield Museum Association is a 501(c)(3) organization and contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Please consider a donation or pledge to the Wakefield Museum’s Building Expansion Campaign. The Wakefield Museum does not receive any city, county or state tax dollars and exists on donations and fundraisers. Any support that you can give will be greatly appreciated. Donations can be sent to the Wakefield Museum, PO Box 193, Wakefield, KS 67487 and designate Building Expansion Campaign on the memo line of the check. Contact the Wakefield Museum if you have any questions concerning the expansion project.

Down Memory Lane
Are you a resident or past resident of the Wakefield community? Did you attend grade school or high school in the area? Did your relatives reside in the Wakefield community at some time? Would you like to take a stroll down memory lane? You can take that stroll at the Wakefield Museum and search for special memories in the many scrap books that have been donated to the Museum for special keeping. Miss Frances Normandin, a Wakefield Grade School teacher for many years, compiled many scrapbooks of photos of her students and of memorabilia pertaining to the school events. The WRHS alumni have been very generous in their contributions of their personal memory books. The Museum recently received scrapbooks compiled by Nettie Elsasser of the Wakefield Pride projects. Another contribution received was a scrapbook compiled by Opal Sherbert of her Rebekah Lodge days, donated by her family. These books contain ‘moments in time’ captured by people who knew the value of recorded history.
You can also spend many hours looking through the research files contained in the six file cabinets in the lower lever of the Rau Wing. The Micro fish reader will also enable you to search through the pages of the old Wakefield newspapers. Please visit the Wakefield Museum at 604 6th St. in Wakefield, KS. The hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 1 to 4 pm, from the first day of spring to the first day of winter. Winter hours are Saturday and Sunday afternoons, 1 to 4 pm. Special tours can be arranged by calling the Museum during hours of operation or leave a message after hours. (785) 461-5516 or call Joy Shandy at (785) 463-5321.

Barn Quilts
As you travel throughout the Kansas Flint Hills and across the country, you may see bright, beautiful and interesting 4x4 ft. quilt blocks displayed on barns, businesses, fences and homes. Originally started as a project to honor an Ohio woman’s mother, it grew into a series of quilts designed to guide visitors through her county. Wakefield is now alive with color and design through a Barn Quilt project organized by Chris Yenni. Eleven blocks were painted by the staff of the Wakefield Museum and a group of volunteers who participated in several painting sessions. These blocks are now displayed on various businesses and homes in Wakefield, Kansas. Much fun was had by all and the city of Wakefield is now listed on the Kansas Flint Hills Quilt Trail, which winds through 22 counties from as far south as Cowley to Washington in the north end of the state. For a map of the route and to learn more about the Quilt Trail, visit ksflinthillsquilttrail.blogspot.com. Please take some time and make a drive around Wakefield and discover the quilt blocks.

The People of Wakefield
A Kansas Governor (Wm. H. Avery) was born and raised in the Wakefield community. So was a Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives (James Braden), a world-class opera singer(Paul Huddleston), a National Teacher of the Year recipient (Frances Normandin), a concert violinist (Abbie Hogan) and scores of other successful citizens whose lives and accomplishments have brought great pride to the Wakefield community throughout its nearly 150-year history. Since 1974, honoring these individuals and preserving the community’s history for future generations has been and continues to be the mission of the Wakefield Museum Association.
The Wakefield community is truly the home of many who represent the very best of the basic principles upon which our great nation was founded. Since its founding in 1869 as the first English colony in the state of Kansas, Wakefield has provided many of the men and women who have fought and died in our nation’s wars, worked in our nation’s factories, taught in schools of all levels across the country, and worked the land, harvested the crops and raised the livestock that has helped Kansas to be known as the Breadbasket of America. The citizens of Wakefield and its surrounding communities have survived fires, floods, tornadoes, grasshoppers, the Dust Bowl years, the Great Depression, relocation due to the construction of the Milford Dam and lake, unification of schools, and many other hardships, both natural and manmade. Their history is poignantly preserved and displayed in the Wakefield Museum. Rural schools, churches, and cemeteries surrounded Wakefield in every direction. Many of their furnishings, histories and memorabilia are also preserved in the Museum.


MUSEUM NEWS ARTICLES & LETTERS
Wakefield Museum MUSINGS
(News Articles)
- “Grange Hall"
- “Wakefield’s Africa Connection”
- “Unidentified Photographs”