On Monday, December 1, the Gray County commissioners held their first meeting of the month, breezing through the first items on the agenda, including: considering the minutes of the previous meeting, paying the bills as presented by the County Auditor, considering any line-item transfers and budget amendments, discussing and considering the Panhandle Regional Mutual Aid Agreement, and discussing and approving the bond for the County Auditor; all were approved.
The last item on the agenda was to recess and re-convene at the White Deer Land Museum where museum director Anita Gullett gave the commission a tour of the museum and shared what renovations they have planned.
“I am excited that you all are going to join me at the museum, and we are going to go into the 1916 Land Office where there were 631,000 acres of the Texas Panhandle sold,” Anita said. “So it’s the original building. In 1957, M.K. Brown bought it to turn it into the museum for Gray County. I’ve brought you guys over the last two years bits and pieces of what I was hoping to be a historical restoration of the building. We are at a point now where the White Deer Land Museum Foundation, which is a 501c3, is ready to help historically restore the Land Office. To do so, our president, John Curry, is going to enter a contract with the acknowledgement of the Gray County Commissioners Court. I would like to show you kind of what some of our issues are and why this needs to be done and why I would really like to go forward with the White Deer Land Museum Foundation to make this happen.”
“There will be no money asked of Gray County, there will be no money asked for the budget. This architecture firm also helps with grants with some of the larger foundations.”
After addressing the court, Judge Porter and the commissioners headed over to the museum where Anita pointed out certain things that need to be done, including electrical wiring and floor beams.
First Floor
“Most of the wiring is the 1916 wiring, so when they added things in, they connected it, and so far so good. But that really has to be addressed, so one of the biggest things is rewiring the museum. One of our interesting parts is most of our globes are actually historic, so we will get to rewire every one of them. I have ones where over time, someone has put in a new one and I actually have historical globes that will go back in place of those. Throughout the whole place, we have amazing light fixtures. So the wiring is one of the biggest issues I’ve seen since I’ve been here besides the beams underneath.”
“For the beams, originally we thought one of them was broken, but in fact it is just warped. It is re-enforcing underneath. There’s a cellar that starts at the back and goes right up to almost the staircase where we are going to have to run many of the re-enforcement beams underneath. There is some asbestos, just one line. A couple of years ago, they had already done a report in here, so they have checked plaster, insulation, and flooring. The only place the museum had it is in an insulated pipe that goes from the back to the front. So again we will be reaching out to Apex in Amarillo and get that taken care of.”
“If you feel the floors as you walk, and especially in this room if you look you can see a little bit of separation. The big part of this historical restoration is the Foundation is going to put the money in, and it is going to look exactly the same as how you see it today except for two rooms.”
“Doctor Jay Johnson did the Youth Center, and he’s going to be helping me get tapped into grants that I’ve never heard of. So we have a great crew that is going to be working on this. The one interesting part is we do have to remove every single thing. We’ve already been working on this, so for a year, I’ve been cleaning out all the closets which hadn’t probably been touched since 1970. Slowy but surely we’ve been condensing and moving and packing and seeing what we really have. It’s been great for archiving.”
“We’ve got cracks in the floors and you can feel the settling, and you can also see the bricks over in the fireplace are sinking down. Those are things that will be addressed when we’re fixing the beams. Almost everything in this room except for the garage lights are original to the 1916 Land Office, and we will actually have this historically restored as shown in the original photograph. It will come directly back to this.”
Second Floor
“In this room, you can see the slope kind of going down and as you get over to the other side, there is actually is a little distance between the wall and the board. The lady that came from Austin said the building was safe and secure, but she said it did need to be addressed. Someone had put in newer fixtures, and I’ve got to remove them because I’ve got some beautiful ones from the Rose Building and the old high school/junior high. I was very lucky when Resound bought the Rose Building because they cut down every globe and brought them to me. I’ve got actual historic brass to put back up.”
“I want you guys to see that there has been water damage, but the plaster and everything will be fixed. We will also be putting in the grant to have a new roof put on, even though the roof has looked good. If we’re going to do this, might as well do it all at once. We will have new heating, air conditioning, wiring, security systems and roof. I want this to stand for another 100 years.”
“This is Mr. Brown’s apartment and he lived here until a little bit after the Schneider Hotel got built. He was the one who got the architect to build this land office, and this will be the other room that will be historically taken back to the picture. We are looking for a carpenter who can redo this and put it on the other side. We have all the furniture and the flags, photographs-all of this was left here. I have bits and pieces to get it restored back, and this will be the only room in the whole museum that will have a wall moved. I’m lucky to have photographs and the blueprints. I also had the paint tested, and there is no lead in the paint.”
After showing the commissioners a couple more places where the floor is sloped, she thanked them for taking the time to come to the museum, and expressed her excitement for the renovation plan of a place that is not only fascinating, but crucial in preserving the history of Gray County.
“We have the opportunity right now with the Foundation and with a lot of focus being put on preservation. It’s already amazing for Gray County. The fact the County supports this is incredible and I want to thank you Judge, Baggerman, Haley, Arrington, and Hudson for all of your support. This will all be done with grants and non-profits, so it’s a win for the County and it’s a win for everyone involved.”
After returning and reconvening at the courthouse, Judge Porter and the commissioners agreed to add the contract for the renovations on the next regular meeting scheduled for December 15. With no further items on the agenda, the meeting was adjourned.
