Cindy Langenberg has been working with the Grand Ledge Area historical society since before the society was formed in 1975. Her role then was record keeping with the local newspaper, the Grand Ledge Independent. She is now the secretary for the society as well as the society’s museum curator.
The Grand Ledge Historical Society Museum is located at 118 W. Lincoln St. in Grand Ledge. It has one exhibit a year which runs from May through the middle of November. The Museum is open on Sundays from 2-4 p.m. and all festival days in the city.
Spartan Newsroom reporter Ben Edwards recently spoke to Langenberg about her role with the historical society.
Q: What does the role of secretary entail?
A: Secretary for the historical society is keeping the minutes, taking care of all correspondence. Basically just knowing everything that has to be known because then you have to pass that on to the officers.
Q: What does the role of Museum curator entail?
A: When you have a collection of things come in or when somebody offers you something from grandma’s attic, you go through the items and decide if they are pertinent to what the goal of the society is, which is history. It has to be connected to the city of Grand Ledge, to a person who lived in Grand Ledge or somebody living here who had a connection at some point.
So we do a lot of research to go back into old school records; we go into our archives, which we house at the library. So it’s a bit of a triangle. You have this building, you have tangible items and you also have paperwork.
And the paper trail is really important. Without the papertrail, there is no sense in having these items. So that’s what a curator does.
Q: When did the historical society form?
A: The society was formed in 1975, the year before the Bicentennial of the United States in 1976. The society wanted to form because we had a number of pieces of things that we didn’t quite know what to do with and other people who were interested in the history of the town were harboring all of these items in their homes or businesses.
All these interested parties came together and said, let’s form a historical society. So in 1975, they got together and they came up with bylaws and corporation and all that stuff, but the main goal was for the following year.
They wanted to make something grand for the Bicentennial, like the rest of the country wanted to do that year.
Q: How did the Museum come to be located here?
A: Starting in 1975, this house became vacant. It actually sits on property that belongs to the Methodist Church. They were going to tear it down.
The problem is this house has history to specific families that were important to the town. So when the historical society found out that it was a possibility to get this house, and it was in a really shabby state, they made a deal with the church.
We eventually got this house and we had to put sweat equity into this building to get it cleaned up and get it presentable. And we did it within a very short period of time.
We had roughly five to six months to get this place presentable. I mean stripped and painted and the whole nine yards. And then in the fall of 1984, we had our first exhibit
Q: What are some challenges that come with the museum?
A: When we are putting an exhibit together, certain pieces of furniture have to stay put, so how are we going to incorporate that into the exhibit?
When you put together an exhibit, you want it to be interesting for kids. You want it to be interesting for adults.
Enough research for adults to make it interesting, but enough storylines so that when you have children come through with a school group, that you can make it interesting for them too.