Mishawaka Historical Museum officially reopens

MISHAWAKA, Ind. (WNDU) - The Mishawaka Historical Museum is open to the public after six years of hard work.

16 News Now’s Carmen Feucht got a look inside and told us what this means to the Mishawaka community.

“There’s a lot here in our history to be proud of and really to love,” explained Pete DeKever, the museum’s president.

DeKever isn’t just the president of the museum; he’s also the curator. DeKever believes that the wait was well worth it.

“It’s just been very satisfying, very pleasing to have our patrons, our residents of our city, our visitors to finally be able to come into the museum and to see this collection of artifacts and photographs that we have been putting together for these past years and to be able to share the history of our city,” DeKever said.

The museum includes seven different exhibits that feature artifacts dating back to 1832.

“Our museum is organized thematically; we have Mishawaka industries and businesses; that’s our largest exhibit,” DeKever continued. “We also have historic landmarks, churches, and faith, famous Mishawakans, Military heritage, and schools; we have a temporary exhibit for the theater, and we also have a functioning model train set that is also part of our exhibit on the history of railroads in Mishawaka.”

The board believed that a museum was long overdue for the Mishawaka community.

“Finally, they decided Mishawaka needs its own historical museum; we’re a city of 50,000 people, some towns a fraction of our size have wonderful local history museums, we did not, and so that was really the beginning for the creation of the museum,” DeKever said.

DeKever expresses his gratitude towards the community and believes that the museum would not have been possible without the support of the people.

“The majority of the items here really have been donated to us over the past five or six years by people with ties to Mishawaka, people who recognize the historic value of their artifacts for telling the story of Mishawaka, so in that sense, this is really the community’s museum,” DeKever explained.

DeKever believes the museum will allow the people of Mishawaka to love their city even more.

“We also want to grow the pride and the love that people have for our city. Mishawaka is a wonderful place to live, and I think, generally, people love their city. This museum will give them more reasons to love Mishawaka, more reasons to be proud of their city by drawing upon the history of that city.”

The Mishawaka Historical Museum is open:

• Tuesday - 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Friday - 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Saturday - 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Admission:

• Adult - $5
• Children 6 through 18 - $3
• Children 5 and under - free

The Mishawaka Historical Museum is located at 121 S. Main St.

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