Memorabilia from Scott City's past on display

Vyron and Lillian Harmon sat under a freshly painted Victorian tin ceiling in a room that once displayed their kitchen appliances and furniture. Now dinner tables replace the springless cotton and felt couches the Harmons sold after World War II, and there is a women's basketball uniform from 1924, a detective kit featuring disappearing ink, and a moveable block printing press where they used to sell refrigerators.

The former Boner-Harmon Furniture store is now a part of Paul Schock's renovated Community Art Center and host to a Scott City Historic Preservation Commission exhibit that will open today. The building's age parallels that of the town, soon to celebrate the end of its first century.

"The historical society needed a place to show the stuff they've collected over the years," Schock said. "Now that we're having a centennial we will have a show."

The building is newly renovated, the plaster has fallen in places, either under the stress of its years or with the help of Schock's hammer, exposing wooden slats and brick outer walls. There is a broad, varnished bar counter in the back of the Harmons' former furniture store where Lillian placed a wooden cash register when she and her husband arrived Wednesday. The register used to total grocery bills two rooms over at the former Harn's Dry Good.

Lillian took her husband's hand and told Schock the story of a local 15-minute celebrity, the winner of a Westinghouse radio quiz show in the '50's who posed beside the Harmons for pictures in that room when she accepted her prizes.

"She won a kitchen set and a $500 diamond ring," Harmon said. "Five hundred dollars bought a big diamond back then."

The Harmons, their photographs, cash registers, old railroader rain gear and the museum exhibit are part of an emerging art district on Main Street. The exhibit exists because of residents like the Harmons who plundered photo albums, attics, garages and bureau drawers for the evidence of their lives there over the past century. Their 1927 Fornfelt High School sweater, 1924 women's basketball uniform and shoes, the cornerstone from Illmo High School, dated 1923, among many others are the displays that will help usher in a cultural and historical district in downtown Scott City.

Schock sees the artistic potential of Scott City, seeing past what is on the surface and noticing "how the town can shine and show off its uniqueness," he said. He has been a resident of Scott City for two years and already walks up Main Street telling fond stories of the town as readily as Lillian, who is over 20 years his senior and grew up there. He teaches art at Southeast Missouri State University and has traveled the world displaying his art, performing and filming documentaries.

Beside the museum display, the dining room will soon open for rental to groups; it will host art classes, live bands, and poetry readings. Schock will provide a building across the street from the art center to permanently house the town's museum. Volunteers in the community and the historical society, including its president, Carolyn Pendergrass, are working to restore that site in time for its opening in November, Schock said.

"It's an opportunity for the community to get involved," Pendergrass said. "The historic preservation commission is anxiously awaiting our own museum."

rgoodier@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 127