After nearly five years of planning, the city of Ames finally found a home for its local museum. The Story Center opened in June of this year.

“We are all still slightly breathless over this,” said Kathy Svec, president of the Ames Heritage Association. “[It’s] absolutely brand-spanking new.”

The Story Center is the result of years of planning by the Ames Heritage Association, a 20-year-old organization started by Ames community historian Farwell Brown.

“About four years ago, we started the long process that it was going to take to learn how to organize and establish a real, honest-to-goodness historical museum for the community,” Svec explained.

Now, after their laborious efforts, a facility has finally been made available to the public.

“Right now, there’s a store front that we are renting at 317 Douglas [Ave.] that actually has three separate spaces where we put shows up,” Svec said.

The story

Put simply, the facility’s name reveals some of the goals of the museum and Svec said the name has a double meeting.

“We do want to tell the story of the community, but also, it is located in Story County, and we think that at some point it might have a slightly broader focus than just the city of Ames,” she said.

While the future of the museum hopes to include county history along with the city’s past, other opportunities for exhibits have already been made possible by the creation of the Story Center.

Iowa State recently contributed to the Story Center’s display. The Ames Laboratory had an exhibit that talked about the development of uranium at Iowa State during the 1940s. The exhibit complemented a display of the first computer, Svec said.

In addition to housing exhibits for other groups besides AHA, the Story Center also plans to be an active force in the community.

“It’s our intention to change the exhibits every two to three months,” Svec said. “It’s not going to be the sort of museum where things never change. We want to do more interpretive things than just putting out the old stuff.

“What we hope to do as we present our exhibits is to try to explain the reason why things are the way they are now and how they might influence the future,” she said. “Our emphasis is going to be very heavily on interpretation and presenting Ames’ fascinating stories.”

Now showing

Some fascinating stories about historical architecture in Ames can currently be seen at the museum. Three early Ames builders are currently being featured, one in home construction, another in commercial buildings who built the underpass on Grand Avenue and a third who takes the role of an artisan/craftsman.

In addition to the “The Early Builders” display, additional related exhibits will take place through the rest of October.

The museum also features exhibits about architecture on Main Street which was the first commercial district built in Ames, as well as one on old town homes.

“It’s sort of a lesson in the different architectural styles that were in the first city blocks that were platted when Ames was first established,” Svec said.

AHA on tour

The architectural history lesson will extend beyond the realm of the Story Center into the depths of downtown Ames, demonstrating the first example of outreach programming since the museum opened.

AHA volunteer Sharon Wirth has been interested in Ames’ architecture for quite some time.

“It’s something that I have learned and studied on my own,” Wirth said. “In 1983, when there was a group of individuals interested in preserving the architecture in that neighborhood, I chaired a group to get that effort under way and we ultimately convinced the Ames City Council to establish the Old Town historic district.”

Wirth will share her self-acquired expertise Sunday as the AHA hosts a walking tour of Main St. architecture.

Additional information about downtown architecture will come from a study the city commissioned in 1992.

“We’re going to start at the museum, and we will have a video tape to show there,” she said. “It was put together by myself and Dan Edwards, who is the cable coordinator for the city of Ames channel 12.”

After the 13-minute video concludes, the lesson will continue outside, weather permitting.

“Rather than talking about specific buildings we are going to talk about five major architectural elements, and we will be looking for those elements at various sites,” Wirth said.

The fun will extend into mid-afternoon with another event tying into the Story Center’s current display.

Ruth Boast will speak at 3:30 p.m. about her father, one of the featured builders in the Story Center’s display “The Early Builders.”

Calling volunteers

Not only has AHA provided space for their exhibits and others by opening the Story Center, it has also created a source that provides community members and students with multiple volunteering opportunities.

“We do think that there are some joint cooperative ventures that might take place with Iowa State students,” Svec said. “We’d really like to develop those. We are just itching to see if Iowa State students would enjoy being a part of this. It’s all so new, we can learn together.”

Svec said she would like to find some students who are “history minded” to be hosts and hostesses at the museum.

“If we can find some volunteers, enough to staff [the Story Center] we would love to open it up more hours,” she said. “We have also found at least one or two students who have done research topics on local history. They have loaned us their work, and we are thinking that there might be some students who would really enjoy taking research topics that they have done and actually developing a little exhibit and getting some real mileage out of their research efforts.”

Those interested in volunteering can contact the Story Center at 232-2148 or call volunteer coordinator Carol Jensen at 233-2431. A sign up sheet is also available at the museum’s location at 317 Douglas Ave.

The Story Center is open Monday nights from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesdays 11 p.m. to 2 p.m., Saturdays 10 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.