In May 2023, a ribbon cutting heralded a new museum in Houston, Minn. Called HAM, at first a person might think it was a cousin to the Spam Museum in Austin, but that’s not the case! HAM is an acronym for Houston Area Museum.
The museum is located at 109 West Maple Street in the former community center. For many years, Shelley Jerviss thought Houston needed a museum. At the end of September in 2022, Jerviss approached the city council in hopes of acquiring the old community center after a new community center was created.
The city had been trying unsuccessfully to sell the building; when Jerviss proposed her idea for a museum, the council was excited and happy to hear Jerviss’ proposal. Together with their attorneys, the council and Jerviss worked out a purchase agreement for the property. The building was officially sold on January 11, 2023.
The Houston Area Museum board met the next day with Shelley Jerviss as president, Michelle Hoskins as secretary, Larry Jerviss as treasurer and maintenance, Rick Bartz as vice president and Jim Skree as curator and historian.
Once HAM had the keys to the building, they got to work. A large bar was removed, a fundraiser helped pay to install LED lights and new sconces. Before moving in any items or displays, HAM deep cleaned, mopped, refinished the floors and painted the walls. Michelle said the work provided her with a needed distraction after her son left to serve in Korea.
HAM received grants from MiEnergy and the Houston Area Community Foundation. They are waiting to hear if their grant application to the Arlin Falck foundation will also be approved.
Hoskins does a lot of the display creation in the museum including the armed forces area and the fire and ambulance area. One uniform in the armed forces display has a special significance to Michelle. It’s a uniform that her son, Tyler Groth, wore and donated to the museum. Michelle has creatively built many of the mannequins that display the service uniforms with two by fours to save money.
Hoskins also created a slideshow of postcards of the past that the museum displays on a continuous loop on a TV. Michelle has created many YouTube videos of museum speakers, old high school ball games, 1987 Hoedown and more. She encourages people to share by lending or donating their old VHS tapes for her to copy.
Shelley, the face of the museum on Saturdays and Sundays, had gathered and stored a lot of Houston Hurricane memorabilia after the all-school reunion in 1991, which now covers an entire wall of the museum.
Once word got around Houston about the new museum, people began bringing in contributions. Shelley remembers a lot of big, generous donations of collections. “The community was super excited about it! Some people came back and donated four or five times!” she declared.
Some of Michelle and Shelley’s favorite items at the museum include memorabilia from local businesses such as the root beer machine and cash register from Benson’s Cafe and a pump organ that still plays from St. Mary’s Catholic Church. A large rectangular butter churn that was used on a farm that had a dairy has made its way to the museum. It had been used to churn butter which was then delivered by wagon and sold to local households.
When asked if there were any items in particular that they would like to see in the museum, both Shelley and Michelle said they’d like to get an Ace Telephone booth. They also would like to get more glass display cases or shelving; many of the items are temporarily displayed on tabletops.
HAM has been sponsoring a variety of programming since it opened – a history of Houston Hoedown, a pictorial presentation of an Iceland anniversary trip taken recently by a Houston couple, and presentations on Trolls, Lincoln, WASPS, Winnebago basketry and Bob Flynn (a POW from Houston). Most recently, Bill Fried presented a program on Ole and Per, cartoons about Norwegian farmers, and author Dick Walters presented his book Ghost Hollows which is about an area near Houston.
Shelley Jerviss related that 20 students in a confirmation class recently visited the museum. Before they came, Shelley researched family names and shared items that were connected to the students’ families. By personalizing the visit, Shelley kept the interest of the young visitors.
Michelle Hoskins commented that her favorite part of the museum is when people see an item that triggers a memory for them. Houston High School class reunions have made a visit to HAM part of their celebration.
HAM is creating a library archive room in the former council room. People will be able to use it to research family history. They encourage people to donate copies of their own family histories. HAM is also interested in old phone books, receipts from local businesses and anything else about Houston’s history.
In the future, HAM hopes to work with the school to encourage use of the museum. Collecting oral histories from local residents has been considered as a future possibility.
The museum is a 501 3c non-profit; any donations to the museum are tax deductible. HAM’s memberships are $15 per person for a year. The first year, 65 people became members. HAM is planning to offer a newsletter. They are on Facebook as Houston Area Museum and have a website, www.houstonareamuseum.org.
Winter hours for the museum are Sundays from 1-4; summer hours are Saturdays from 11-4 and Sundays from 1-4. They are also open by appointment. There is no entrance fee, but donations are appreciated.
Michelle and Shelley encourage all the Houston residents to come and visit HAM. An elderly man who currently lives at Heritage Court commented to Shelley, “You did the best thing you could have done for Houston!” That perfectly sums it up! Houston, take the time to enjoy HAM!
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