Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2016 08 03 JT

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Page 16 of 150 best places to Iive.2 Even today, Louisville continues to adapt to new circumstances and outside forces. It is clear that we are all participants in the ongoing history of our community. Volunteers, many of whom grew up in Louisville and were from mining families, started the Museum in the 1980s. Significantly, they also had the vision to set up a process whereby people could donate photos, artifacts, stories, and information to be preserved for the future. Towns that do not have local history organizations of any kind are losing basic information about their histories because of the lack of a place to which people can donate photos and artifacts and information. The Louisville Historical Museum is a place of strong emotions because of people making connections with one another. The Museum staff and volunteers can testify to visitors being overcome with emotion. One widower and his grown children broke down in tears upon viewing his wife's smiling face from the 1940s on the film made of World War II servicemen and women. Recently, a woman began to cry in the Tomeo House at the thought of the similar circumstances and sacrifice that her grandparents had lived through in another community, decades ago. These are not unusual occurrences. Laughter is also a regular occurrence around the table in the Jacoe Store when Louisville natives stop by and tell stories of their childhoods. Students often express curiosity and wonderment during their visits to the Museum. The Museum staff has even witnessed a proposal of marriage in the Jacoe Store. Over the years, many Monarch High School students have had their senior photos taken on the beautiful Museum campus, which is no doubt a testament to how those young people felt about growing up in a place like Louisville. People seek and appreciate authenticity in their cultural experiences. The Museum is able to satisfy this understandable desire, particularly with its authentic, historical buildings on Main Street and many helpful volunteers who have strong connections to Louisville. When a third grade girl on a school tour of the Jacoe Store asked "Is this real?," the Museum Coordinator was able to answer, "Yes!" As Metcalfe Architecture & Design emphasized during the course of its assessment of the Museum in 2014, and as described further below, it is the culture of Louisville itself that is driving the vision for the Louisville Historical Museum campus. And as ArtsMarket encouraged during the process of creating a Business Plan, the Historical Museum shares many common goals with arts and cultural organizations in Louisville. Location, Location, Location The Museum is the anchor for the northern edge of the historic downtown business district and its location on Main Street could hardly have been planned better. In fact, the Jacoe Store, as the location of a former Main Street business, is the perfect place to talk with visitors about the past and present business offerings of downtown Louisville. The Museum has explored and promoted Louisville's historic Main Street in many different ways, to the benefit of the City. In recent years, the Museum has covered Main Street in a lead article and in photo 2 Money Magazine has placed Louisville in one of the top five spots of its "Best Places to Live in America" biennial rankings for cities with a population of under 50,000 every time since the list was first published in 2005. Louisville has held the position of #5 in 2005, #3 in 2007, #1 in 2009, #1 in 2011, #2 in 2014, and #4 in 2015. Louisville has also received other, similar national recognition. 8