By James Hanlon
Leader Staff Writer
An open guest book on a podium inside the Northeast Oakland Historical Museum shows the last visitor was March 14, 2020 before large letters below it say ‘Closed due to pandemic 2020!’ Over a year later, the museum has finally re-opened.
Sue Bossardet, treasurer of the Northeast Oakland Historical Society that runs the museum, spent most of the pandemic systematically reorganizing and cleaning the museum inside the former Oxford Savings Bank at 1 N. Washington St. on the corner of Burdick St. downtown.
“I know this sounds terrible to say, but COVID did us a favor,” Bossardet said, “because we would have never been able to lay out everything and refile and reorganize. We just wouldn’t have been able to do it. . . So it was a good thing for us.”
Bossardet did most of the work herself. “There was a couple other ladies that came in and helped. They were coming in for a couple months, but then their doctor said ‘Nope, you got to leave.’ Even though we were all masked and everything. So, I just kept plugging away at it and going through files and cleaning, trying to get it organized.”
Then, earlier this year, the museum had some remodeling done to the historic Indiana limestone building. The interior was repainted true to the original paint scheme. There was also some electrical work done, walls repaired, new carpeting, and most notably, the opaque windows on the south-facing side were replaced. The new glass matches the windows on the adjacent side, and brightens up the whole building, inside and out. “You don’t even need the lights on,” Bossardet said. “It’s redundant.” The windows are also UV-rated, which is good for preserving the artifacts.
The Oxford Savings Bank constructed the building in 1922 and occupied it until 1966, when it moved to its headquarters to 60 S. Washington St. (The financial institution shortened its name to Oxford Bank in 1985.) The museum has occupied the former bank since 1972. The building itself was later registered as a Michigan Historical Site in 1992.
The first thing visitors will notice when they return to the museum will be the new exhibit commemorating the 125th anniversary of the Great Cyclone that destroyed the villages of Oakwood and Thomas in northern Oxford Township. A display case features photographs of the deadly twister’s path of destruction and a postmaster’s stamp still showing the tornado’s date of May 25, 1896. The stamp, used to cancel letters, was found by a farmer plowing his field some 40 years later.
Last month, Local 4 meteorologist Paul Gross visited the museum to research a segment about the historic category 5 tornado. Bossardet said he spent about four hours at the museum looking through photos and documents. “He was very nice and very interested in what we had.”
The museum is home to thousands of items from Oxford and the surrounding areas ranging from antique quilts to farm tools. Displays showcase Oxford’s gravel industry heritage and Lone Ranger memorabilia.
Bossardet said the museum is looking for a few more Oxford High School yearbooks to complete its collection going back to 1949. They are missing years 1989, 2002-2004, and 2006 to the present. If anyone would like to donate these yearbooks, the museum would gladly accept.
The museum is open Thursdays and Saturdays, 1 p.m. to 4.p.m.