Some of the Queen City’s cultural ties to its storied history will be lost, perhaps forever, when the Charlotte Museum of History closes its doors on Friday.
Declines in ticket revenue, fewer grants from the Arts & Science Council, less money from private donations and diminished cash reserves have left it in financial peril. The museum will spend the next four to six months developing a new funding strategy. But it is anyone’s guess if it will reopen.
Long a destination for school children, residents and tourists, the museum’s collection tells much of Charlotte’s history and houses artifacts that illustrate the evolution of our community. It houses a replica of the Indian paths that intersected at Trade and Tryon streets that brought settlers and trade into Charlotte. It was where visitors could learn about Waxhaw, a town in Union County named after the Indian tribe that once occupied this part of the state.
It’s also home to the Hezekiah Alexander House, which stands on the museums grounds, in east Charlotte off Shamrock Drive. Dating back to 1774, Mecklenburg County’s oldest house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a historically significant example of a Revolutionary War-era home and features hand-laid rock masonry around its perimiter. Alexander, a planter and blacksmith, was a member of a committee that drafted the first State Constitution and Bill of Rights in 1776.
Losing touch with such important building blocks of the past gives way to a lost sense of connection to our region. Native Charlottean or not, these things should matter. They are what define us as Americans, new Southerners. They remind us we’re a city with a story and a heritage that is worth preserving and celebrating. The lives and life’s work of all who came before us deserve to be remembered, documented and studied. They fought for us and our way of life.
Surrounded by the ubiquity of big-box stores, fast-food outlets and chain merchants that strip the character and soul from the communities that they serve, American cities are losing their identities and individuality. Real history and its artifacts are worth fighting for. Preservation efforts that help distinguish our community are everyone’s responsibility and can be accomplished by supporting them financially.
The closing of the museum says more about our future than it does about our past. But how can we know where we are going unless we know from where we came?
- Charlotte Museum of History
This article appears in May 23-29, 2012.
Closing it would be a shame. But we could save it if the “board” would allow more activities and uses of the property. As a caterer for many years I wanted to rent the property for private weddings. Only a small portion of the property was allowed. Using the HA grounds would have been very successful in bringing much needed revenue. The integrity of the property would never have been compromized. ~Crown Event Occasions
The board has made a variety of horrific mistakes – a monstrosity of a building that takes a fortune to maintain and started falling apart soon after building it, mismanagement of funding, undercharging for facility rentals, free events that bring visitors but bring in no revenue, etc. The board should have been kicked out years ago, they obviously have no business in the nonprofit world. I sincerely hope that with some reorganization the museum can reopen and Charlotte will appreciate this gem.
Sorry, I don’t buy the argument that losing the museum would be such a big blow. The Levine Museum of the New South has plenty of Charlotte-specific exhibits and items, is welcoming to student groups, is run by cooperative, knowledgeable people, and unlike the Charlotte Museum of History, is well-managed and, frankly, a lot more interesting.
The “void in our legacy” was created when someone with NO background in the community’s history was allowed to turn the place into a multicultural center & put people with no education/experience in management. But it really began 2 CEOs earlier. The board members (prominent business leaders) were asleep at the wheel, caring more about having their name on the board roster than finding funding for the museum.
This board and the former CEO need to be sued for mis-management (or pre-meditated murder of the museum?). They knew the museum was in financial trouble long ago – but they continued to spend, spend, spend. Now Charlotte has it’s very own Greece – thanks to the queen of mulitculturalism – the former CEO. Museums have a mission statement for a reason and their’s was suitable to the facility and the history – the board and CEO choose to ignore it in favor of fashionable multicultural exhibits, staff, etc.
Museums can be self-supporting but it takes real museum professionals and a board which knows what it is doing and doesn’t just see this as a social opportunity. While I don’t know what Crown Event Occasions would like to have done, I do know that the museum was largely indifferent to the opportunities for revenue provided by their facility. And the integrity of the property does not have to be compromized to generate this revenue. Museums can, and should be, sell supporting. Most of them chose not to because they can.
When will there be someone in charge there who knows what they are doing? When will the Charlotte media start doing investigative reporting, instead of after-the-fact reports? This is a great opportunity for this or some other media source to employ some real journalism. They might begin by forging a partnership with some media outlet in Texas to hunt down this CEO who is now in Texas. Where is there a Breitbart?
So when is this media going to go after this board and the former CEO? Publish the board’s names and what other boards they are on (so those organizations are warned), get in touch with the media in Texas and aid them in running that former CEO out of the museum (and the CEO) business. There are so many really qualified people in so many fields who would do a far better job than these frauds. Where is there a Breitbart – indeed.