Over the next few years, the Shawnee Town 1929 historic attraction near downtown Shawnee could get a few major additions to its facilities, including a new visitor center, a replacement chapel and a block of four new town buildings.
In total, the plan calls for six new buildings on the site off Johnson Drive.
The city appears likely to lean on a capital campaign that attracts private donors to support the project instead of using city park funds at the request of the city council.
The museum attracted 168,000 visitors in 2022
- Shawnee Town 1929, which first opened as a museum in the 1960s, is sometimes referred to as Old Shawnee Town.
- It’s a living history museum that focuses on Shawnee’s roots as a farming community with both a farm site and a town site that include some restored buildings from the 1800s.
- Located in Herman Laird Park on Johnson Drive, it’s open six days a week and frequently hosts community and private events.
- It’s also a draw for local elementary school groups on field trips and is where the annual Old Shawnee Days festival is held.
- “Shawnee town is something different to a lot of people,” Shawnee Parks and Recreation director Tonya Lecuru said.
These are long-planned improvements
- These new building plans and other recent improvements are laid out in a strategic plan that community leaders established shortly after the Shawnee Historical Society handed it off to the city in the 1990s.
- In 2021, the museum added the Fisher Chevrolet Dealership and Murphy Service Station buildings.
- “Our goal is to provide a great museum for the community,” Lecuru said. “We are working within the opportunities that we have presented to us.”
Six new buildings are planned
- The new visitor center, planned for the Johnson Drive side of the museum near the town hall, would replace the old one currently on 57th Street.
- The idea, Lecuru said, is to remind people Shawnee Town 1929 is there and open.
- The facility would also bring with it large accessible restrooms, museum director Charlie Pautler said.
- As outlined in Mayor Michelle Distler’s 2023 State of the City address last month, there are also plans to add a replacement Shawnee Town chapel between the farmscape and townscape.
- The new chapel would be part of the overall museum and also a location for private events, like weddings.
- That leaves the “block of four historic buildings,” Paulter said, which would include a soda fountain, a bank, a dry goods store and an electric store all planned by the Murphy Service Station.
The project’s costs are uncertain
- There isn’t a firm price tag on what it will take to see these plans come to life since architectural designs have not been approved for all of it and construction costs have fluctuated recently.
- Lecuru said the chapel and visitor center projects could cost a combined $7 million.
- The city council did indicate it might be willing to match private dollars, though a specific match percentage was not formally laid out.
Next steps:
- Last month, the Shawnee City Council committee met with a representative from a Kansas City area firm called Kinetic Fundraising.
- The city will now kick in roughly $30,000 to pay for the pre-campaign study, with an additional $15,000 coming from the Friends of Shawnee Town nonprofit.
- The study will begin shortly and is expected to last about six months, according to city documents. After that, the actual campaign starts.
Other Shawnee history news: The story behind Shawnee’s new statue of Wild Bill Hickok
