History Center to open research lab

The Cape Girardeau County History Center is growing and expanding, and plans are moving ahead for a separate site devoted solely to researchers accessing certain materials, said director Carla Jordan.

That site will be just 20 steps away from the History Center, at 110 S. High St., Jordan said.

"It's very handy," Jordan said. "It's a place for study and research, for quieter activities."

The History Center at 102 S. High St. in uptown Jackson opened in 2015, and in addition to exhibits and events, has hosted an ever-widening offering of activities, Jordan said.

"We are victims of our own success," Jordan said.

The History Center recently underwent extensive renovations, including expanded restrooms and storage areas.

Those renovations reduced the space formerly used by researchers who wanted to access the Center's collections, Jordan said.

"We don't have a good place for people to research and look at the paper collections," she said.

The collections include rare gems that are important to researchers, Jordan said: field notes from the Civil War, manuscripts on Southeast Missouri families, the Lorimier Founders Collection (which includes furniture, personal effects and documents from the family and descendants of Louis Lorimier, Cape Girardeau's founder) and other items help tell the story of Southeast Missouri.

The collections are catalogued, Jordan said, but not accessible because there isn't a good space that is both quiet and secure.

Hopefully, the new site will address that, she said.

Jordan emphasized that the new site, which she referred to as a "research annex" or "reading room," will not duplicate any museum or library services in Cape Girardeau County.

The County Archive Center (at 112 E. Washington St. in Jackson) houses government documents, for example, Jordan said, and the History Center has received many collections that don't fit other missions.

"We work closely with the Archive Center, the State Historical Society of Missouri, and the Riverside Regional and Cape Girardeau Public Library systems," Jordan said. "The History Center is the perfect location for what we're doing, but we don't have room for research."

So, she said, "it makes sense for us to grow."

Jordan said the research annex will be open by appointment, and will likely have set hours to be open to the public, but that has yet to be determined.

The annex can also be used for genealogy workshops or other workshops, and for organizations' meetings, such as the Daughters of the American Revolution or Genealogical Society, she said.

"We'll do window displays there, but our artifacts won't be (housed) there," Jordan said.

The History Center will still be the hub. "Calls will come in to the Center, and people who want to donate items will bring them to the Center first. We're there every day but Sunday. The annex will be more of an arranged type situation."

The building's interior has been remodeled, Jordan said, and furniture is ready to go in.

"It's time," Jordan said. "It's the next step, for a good historical society with an amazing History Center to add on a satellite research facility."

Jordan said the new research center at 110 S. High St. in Jackson is planned to open later this spring.

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