Endowment from bank helps fund Eden museum

The completion of Eden Historical Museum’s permanent exhibit moves a step closer today with the receipt of a $24,000 grant from Home Savings Bank of Eden and Reidsville.

“It doesn’t seem that long ago that we opened the doors of the museum for the first exhibit,” said Jean Harrington, spokesperson for the Eden Preservation Society and a board member of the museum. “Now, thanks to this generous grant, we’re close to having our permanent collection in place.”

The check will be presented at 10 a.m. today at the museum, located at 656 Washington St. in Eden.

The funds are part of the first grant cycle for the Home Savings Bank Charitable Endowment. The fund makes grants available to 501C3 organizations operating within the bank’s geographical service area, HSB president Jonathan Jobe said.

“The Endowment’s priority is to fund projects that promote cooperation and collaboration among the citizens of this area and the organizations our citizens support,” Jobe said.

Another priority is to fund projects that do not duplicate services already available in the area.

Harrington says that is not a problem for the museum.

“As far as I know, this is the only museum of its type anywhere in the county,” she said. “I know there’s the historical archives at RCC, but nothing like what we have here in the museum. This is definitely a first for our area.”

Harrington and her husband, Tommy, donated the historic building on Washington Street to the Eden Preservation Society for use as a museum in September 2007. That same month, EPS volunteers cleaned up the building and prepared an exhibit of historic images of the Eden area.

In October 2007, the museum held its first special presentation with the showing of the Jesse James Exhibit. The Riverboat Men Mural in the square of Olde Leaksville Shopping District was unveiled in November 2007, accompanied by a museum exhibit detailing the creation of the mural.

Several exhibits took place during the early portion of 2008, including the Celebration of Thomas Day and World War II – A Remembrance. The last few months have been taken up with preparing the permanent exhibit.

Harrington said the plan calls for the permanent collection to tell the chronological stories of Leaksville, Spray and Draper up to the time of consolidation.

“We want to include as much as we can, from the early river history and Saura Indians through the Civil War, reconstruction period and up to the early mills,” she said.

Another major part of the permanent collection will be the Harold Francis Photography Room. The museum received Francis’ entire collection of photographs and negatives, and volunteers have been busy sorting, cataloging and eventually digitizing the collection.

The $24,000 grant from Home Savings Bank Charitable Endowment will go a long way toward completing the photographic work, as well as other portions of the permanent exhibit partitions. But Harrington said the museum still needs about $20,000 to complete the work.

“There’s a lot of work left to do, but it’s an important piece of our history and we want to do it right to make as much as possible available for our community to use,” Harrington said.

Jobe said he was delighted to have the museum be the first recipient of an HSB grant.

“We are pleased to be able to give back to our community and enrich the lives of all Rockingham County residents,” he said.

Anyone interested in making a tax-deductible contribution to the museum is asked to contact museum director Melinda Whitten at or by mail at Eden Historical Museum, P.O. Box 264, Eden, NC 27289-0264.