Bradford Pioneer Village Museum

A tour back in time in Bradford, Iowa

Thursday, November 15, 2007

EXCITING SUMMER

We have really had some exciting things happening this summer at the Village. We have raised just over $40,000.00 now including in-kind donations of time and efforts. The Kraft School still sits on it's "pedestal". We were hoping that it would be down by now, but NO. BUT, we have had some other great up-grades. The Smith Cabin has a new roof, thanks to Jeremy Day and so does the Cottage. The Cabin was pretty easy to do, but the Cottage was a real surprise for the workers. Steve Christenson (and we) thought that all they had to do was tear off the shingles and put on the new, but it was not that easy. They started tearing of the shingles and found a layer of tar paper. Underneath that was another layer of tar paper and a full roof of old wooden shingles. So that little project cost us more than we expected! But we weren't too surprised either.

Stanton Electric showed up to put some underground wiring in for us. The Jail, Kraft School and Toy shop have not had electricity, but now they are wired. They also ran electricity underground to the Cottage and Heritage Building.

Roger and Robert Hanson donated a central air conditioning system to us to be used in the Heritage Building. This will help with climate control during the summer when it gets so hot and sticky in there.

Our Annual Meeting was held on Tuesday, November 13 at the Farmhouse Bed & Breakfast Gathering Room in Fredericksburg. We had the biggest crowd that I have seen in my 3 seasons there. It was a delicious meal and good meeting.

I am having picture problems, so hopefully I can add pictures later.