The Galena Historical Society and U.S. Grant Museum are housed inside a historic building, the Daniel Barrows mansion, built in 1858 for the Galena merchant. Since 1938, the Galena-Jo Daviess County Historical Society has leased the building from the city of Galena.
Galena-Jo Daviess County Historical Society Executive Director Tessa Flak said the historical society has a 100-year lease with the city, but the building's historical state has prohibited alterations, causing accessibility issues.
"It doesn't have the appropriate HVAC, electrical, ADA accessibility, parking, outdoor space, you name it, appropriate for a museum," Flak said in a phone interview with WVIK. "Over 30% of our visitors can't access the second floor. [It] features our military hall and the 9x12 foot ‘Peace in Union’ painting (by Thomas Nast), which is our number one artifact."
Kris Chapman has been a curatorial volunteer with the museum since 2007, and starting in 2018, she joined the society's board of directors. She said her tasks involve working with four other curatorial volunteers.
"We assist in all aspects of collection management," Chapman said in a phone interview with WVIK. "We process new donations. We maintain our current collection, which involves updating our database. We also monitor our permanent exhibits. We design and install new and temporary exhibits. And we also provide research assistance to people who call in or email us with history-related questions."
Flak said the historical society has been working towards building a new museum for the last 15 years. They purchased land next to the US Grant Home historic site, 500 Bouthillier Street, in 2017, intending to create a new museum campus.
"We are going to build an 8,500-square-foot facility with new exhibits, an actual archive room to store over 14,000 items," Flak said. "We'll have office space, you know, research area, different things like that. It'll be basically a state-of-the-art facility for the region."
Flak said they currently receive over 15,000 visitors a year, and according to two economic impact studies done by Northern Illinois and Iowa State University, the new site would increase the number of visitors yearly to nearly 50,000 people.
The total museum campus project is estimated at $10.4 million.
The project found several funders, with one grant coming from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) back in 2022. Flak said the grant total is $1.8 million and the historical society had to match the grant. She said they only had a few months, but they were able to 'pull the rabbit out of the hat' coming up with over $1.9 million.
"We had about a year for pre-construction, getting our design updated, different things like that because it was on hold because of COVID," Flak said. "We moved the facility a little further up on the property that saved us money, different things like that. We've been looking at all sorts of cost-saving measures. But we were just a week away here within the last two weeks of actually signing with our lowest bidder, a construction group in the tri-state area. And we heard with the new administration that our grant was a part of the funding freeze."
According to Flak, the society was not receiving any updates on the grant other than that it had been frozen. WVIK contacted the U.S. Economic Development Administration multiple times for comment and only received notice that they would review the request.
Flak said the EDA reached out last Friday, Feb. 21, notifying the society that the grant was still under review with an additional step, but they were given no timeline.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is providing a $576,000 matching grant to the museum project. However, like the EDA, the institute is under federal authority, and it went silent on the historical society after the federal funding freeze announcement. WVIK reached out for comment with no response as of February 28th.
"And that's not the only issue. We ended up getting an Illinois tourism attractions grant from the state for $450,000. And we've been matching that," Flak said. "We're required to use that grant by the end of June for construction. So, while we have access to those funds in a reimbursement format, we can't move forward without all the funding for construction."
WVIK contacted the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity (DCEO) for comment on the Galena-Jo Daviess County Historical Society tourism grant. In an email response, Assistant Deputy Director of Communications Eliza Glezer said, "DCEO funds continue to be available for this project. DCEO evaluates grant extensions on a case-by-case basis and will work with the grantee should they have any questions concerning the agency’s portion of the funding."
According to Chapman and Flak, before the funding freeze, the historical society needed to raise $2.5 million to cover the total project cost of $10.4 million. These funds would go towards adding new exhibits and preserving the current collection.
Chapman said the museum uses merchandise cases to protect the collection, and it’s not ideal.
"[They are] currently exposed to continuing changes in temperature and humidity," Chapman said. "So in a new museum, we will be able to provide that stabilized environment. And also, our collection storage will be consolidated in a single area so that we'll be able to access and preserve things in a satisfactory manner."
In a follow-up email to WVIK, Flak wrote local and regional advocates have been contacting their representatives on behalf of the historical society. She said the historical society is grateful for the support.
"I think it's been said that Galena's future is its past. That was Mayor Einsweiler, he was instrumental in getting the floodgate ... getting us on the National Registry for Historic Places. And we also live by our motto, the town that time forgot. So we have a lot of visitors that come here to appreciate the history," Chapman said. "And future generations really need to know how their ancestors contributed to their community, the nation and also the world. [W]e feel we have a very important role and we would like to be able to present this in the best possible way."
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