![]() Stafford Explorations
Learn more about Stafford by following the links below:
Stafford County MuseumAddress:
100 N. Main
Email Address: mjhathaway61@earthlink.net About this Exploration: ![]() Open Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
The Stafford County Museum is so complete it is actually housed in several buildings in downtown Stafford. Of the several buildings, one of the most impressive (shown above) was built in 1905 as a bank by the Larabee family; the building is listed on the National Historic Register.
It was unusual at the time to have a bank building designed by an architect, but this one was designed by Charles E. Shepard who also designed the Nora E. Larabee Memorial Library in Stafford. Mr. Shepard was a well known architect in Kansas during the early part of the twentieth century. Mr. Shepard used a purplish-black brick and Ionic style columns to make the building distinctive. Housed inside the museum's facilities are thousands of historical artifacts; prized possessions include a first class genealogy research center, a collection of 29,000 glass negatives from the early 1900s, an auto museum, historical records and newspapers, horse drawn hearse, rural school displays and a vast collection of antique farm implements. The antique dentist office display always makes ones teeth hurt. The curator's favorite display is a Civil War rifle that looks like a cannon. The building above is located at 100 S. Main, the museum library and offices are located at 100 N. Main, and two other museum buildings are at 107 S. Main and 113 N. Main, all located near the main intersection of Main and Broadway. View the museum's website.
Read news report on glass negatives.
View scanned images from the glass negative collection.
National Register for Historic Places nomination. |