‘History wasn’t in black and white.’ Here’s how Shawnee Town ‘changed’ its history

You can change history.

Sort of.

Shawnee Town 1929, located 11501 W. 57th St., has been transforming itself, moving from the frontier era to the 1920s. It was a strategic move with hopes of offering something unique to history lovers.

“Over the last 20 years, our physical plant and programs have changed 100%,” said Charlie Paulter, director of Shawnee Town 1929. “The only thing that has not changed is the schoolhouse has not been relocated, but everything inside of it, including the program we deliver to our public, has changed.”

Those changes will be seen by the hundreds of people expected to visit the museum during Old Shawnee Days, June 6-9. The event features musical entertainment, carnival rides, children’s activities, food and vendors.

One draw for children is the Old Shawnee Days parade, which begins at 10 a.m. June 8. At that event, and during the festival, attendees will get a good look at the grounds and structures of Old Shawnee Town, which was created in the 1960s.

“The original museum featured a lot of the same elements that neighboring museums offered: a look at pre-Civil War and Civil War-era frontier life,” Paulter said.

After the museum was acquired by the city of Shawnee in 1998, a committee was formed of citizens, teachers and city leaders to develop a strategic plan, which was adopted by the Shawnee City Council in 2004.

Paulter said two factors drove that plan.

“The first was that, yes, there were already several places in the metro area where visitors could gain a great understanding of pioneer era and mid-19th century life,” he said. “The second was that Shawnee was an agricultural center that helped feed the Midwestern U.S. through its truck farm economy, and that started in the 1920s.”

With a plan, the work to change history began.

Museum staff researched how each building should be built, how it would be used interpretively, what stories could be told, and what artifacts should be present in it to make an authentic experience.

Artifact gathering was done through donation but mostly purchased with funds from the Friends of Shawnee Town, a member group that helps support the museum.

“The buildings in place 20 years ago when the transformation began are mostly gone now,” Paulter said. “Structures moved in or newly reconstructed were built to resemble the way they would have in the 1920s, even if they were earlier structures.”

An example is the 1870s farmhouse that was relocated to the site. It’s now the center attraction at the truck farm.

“It is painted, decorated and furnished in a late 1920s manner, showing how a 50-year-old house would have appeared once it was updated and modernized,” Paulter said.

A focus on the 1920s has opened up a realm of programming possibilities, including women fighting for and earning the right to vote, Prohibition, popular culture, popular advertising, the emergence of jazz, race relations, veterans’ needs, the evolving middle class, changes in trades and industries, the production of the automobile on a mass scale and fashion trends.

“Our mission at this museum, and at any museum, is to connect our modern visitors with the past and show them that history wasn’t in black and white but was truly colorful,” Paulter said. “People are people and had many of the same thoughts, successes and stresses that we do today.

“I want visitors to see their own relatives 100 years ago as real three-dimensional people and not as an ancient faded black and white photo. To that end I think visitors connect with us fairly well because of the wide variety of programs we offer, and many of these have come about since the pandemic.”

How volunteer Vince Garrett viewed the transformation has actually transformed.

Garrett said his late Aunt Bertha, an interpretive history volunteer herself, wasn’t thrilled when she first heard about the change of Shawnee Town.

“She was born in 1927, so she thought 1929 wasn’t that old,” Garrett said. “I kind of sided with her — at first.”

His thoughts on the subject have changed.

Garrett started volunteering about five years ago. His first job was inspired by his interest in cars. He started restoring three museum cars that have not run in six years: A 1927 Nash, a 1928 Chevy and a 1929 Ford farm truck.

“I’m amazed how many people have never been here,” Garrett said of the museum. “I think it’s the best kept secret in Shawnee. It is so well done.

“I’ve watched it grow in even the five years I have been there. I think people leave a little bit surprise that they discovered more than they thought they were going to.”

The Friends of Shawnee Town and the city of Shawnee have launched a $10 million capital campaign to raise money to finish the last of the transformation project.

Pauler said a modern visitors center is still needed.

“We also want to complete the remaining four historic building reconstructions to finish the strategic plan,” Paulter said.

This would include the Shawnee State Bank, drug store, dry goods store and electric appliance store.

“These will help round out the interpretive program and enable us to tell more stories of residents and their occupations and lives.”

For more information about Shawnee Town 1929, go to shawneetown.org/home.