ECCCMA Working Towards Opening First Floor at Courthouse

The Effingham County Cultural Center and Museum Association held a meeting and work evening at the Effingham County Courthouse Thursday.

President Delaine Donaldson called the meeting to order and talked about opening rooms on the bottom floor Sunday, November 11.

"Our first objective as a group was to preserve this building and that has been accomplished," said Donaldson. "Our second objective was to work to get the building ready to open. We have used 30 gallons of paint, put in new carpeting, finished the floors and put in new lighting. We're limited to the first floor until we can get the sprinkler system, which will cost $100,000, in place. The third phase is operating this as a museum."

Several rooms on the first floor will be officially opened to the public Sunday, November 11 from 1-4 p.m. One of those will be the Veteran's Room where uniforms will be on display along with photographs of area veterans. There also will be a time line on pleixglass with major headlines of events and a map mural on the wall along with an 18 inch border depicting soldier's photos from various time periods and other scenes.

From that point on the museum will be open to the public Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There will be a lecture series at the museum Thursday, November 8. Tom McDevitt will be the guest speaker for that event. The lecture will be held from 7-8 p.m. and is open to the public.

Also talked about at the meeting  was furnace work by Merz along with Molly Brown's work on a grant applying for tables and chairs that will seat 125-130 on the second floor. The  ECCCMA group also attended the United Way Gala dressed as passengers on the Titanic and received a donation of $400.

Several members of the courthouse group will be handing out candy on the steps of the courthouse Wednesday, October 31 for Halloween.