Museum board looks at planning new museum layout

Members of the H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum Board began to discuss ideas for a floor plan for their future location in the Griggs Building on Fifth Avenue in downtown Havre.

Board Chair Judi Dritshulas said that at the last two meetings of the H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Foundation she has attended, a foundation member told her the museum board should come up with a floor plan for when the museum relocates to its new site.

The foundation purchased the two-story Griggs building in 2013 to provide the museum with a space larger than its location at the Holiday Village Mall.

Dritshulas said it is difficult to decide what the displays will be and where they will be located until it is known how much space they will have when they do eventually move into the new building.

She added that when board members get together Saturday morning to clean the museum at its existing location, they will try to come up with some ideas for possible displays for the Griggs building.

Foundation President Elaine Morse said foundation board members have said it is difficult for them to figure out what priorities they should raise money for when they are not sure what the board’s vision is for the building.

Morse said she has sent schematic and drawing done by Becki Miller, an architect and preservation officer of the Havre/Hill County Historic Preservation Commission, to foundation members so they can see what space they will have to work with.

The whole main floor of the building would be useable for the museum, Morse said, but the first and third floor can’t be used unless a sprinkler system is installed and elevator and stair access is improved.

Multiple plans were drawn up for the new museum space. What could be used will depend on funding, how much space will be useable and other concerns, Morse said.

Morse added that she thinks it would be good for the board to use a plan where the museum will use an L-shaped area in the building and two other big rooms that are now empty.

Available space in the building will drive what gets worked on next in the process, Morse said.

Board member Allison Hecker said it could be difficult now to decide on possible displays because so many items are in storage.

Board Vice-Chair Lela Petara said they can still come up with ideas for what gets showcased at the museum, such as whether a section should be solely dedicated to Fort Assinniboine.

The museum might want to have different displays for different area communities, Dritshulas said. She added that someone suggested to her that the museum board invite people from surrounding communities to a well-advertised meeting, where representatives from each community can say how they want their respective community to be represented in the museum.

“So I think maybe that is something we need to think about, too,” she said.

Dritshulas said the museum might want to have displays of local prominent families, but it could be hard to decide which families to feature.

Petara said the museum could have a display where different prominent displays are featured on a rotating basis.

In other business, Morse said the website for the Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump is now down.

She said Foundation member Thora Beck went on the jump’s website Sunday to get some information for a new brochure for the museum, and found that the graphics and most of the information on the website were down.

“The header is there, the page is there, but there is no information,” she said.

John and Anna Brumley retired from managing the Buffalo Jump last October. The museum will now manage the Buffalo Jump.

Morse said Anna Brumley has said the website that would be left up after they retired and Brumley’s son Flint who manages the website was going to turn over control of it to the board.

“I think there was just a misconnection. I hope,” Morse said.

Morse said she will ask Beck if she would get in touch with Brumley’s son about the website.

The historical tea fundraiser will be held April 28, and the theme will be historic buildings,

The tea, a fundraiser for the foundation organized by Friends of the Museum, is in its third year. Last year the tea’s theme was historic women from Havre and in 2015 the theme was the popular series “Downton Abbey.”

The board’s next meeting will be 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, at the Havre Inn and Suites.