My Hometown

 

The Philomath Museum was initially set as the town's local college, having been built in 1865. It was funded by the United Brethren Church. Of the total 320 acres purchases, 8 were reserved for the college, and the remainder was used for the town. By 1867, the building was complete, standing with 24-inch thick walls of brick. The college operated until 1929, being repurposed into the town's church. But by the early 1970s, the build no longer served use and was left abandoned and deteriorating. Locals worked together to save the historic monument, and in 1980, the rehabilitated building became the town's Museum, owned and run by the Benton County Historical Society. The Museum offers two galleries, a research library including 45,000 photographs and archival collections, and a gift shop. The first-floor gallery presents rotating exhibitions from the Societies collection of over 120,000 pieces. It is housed in the 13,000 sq. ft., $2.3 million Peter and Rosalie Johnson Collections care facility just behind the Museum. OSU's former Horner collection, including over 60,000 artifacts of history, was possessed by the Society in 2008 and exhibits local, national, international artifacts. 

The Benton County Historical Society executive director, Jessica Hougen, sat down to share setbacks and future plans for the Philomath and Corvallis historical museums. Jessica received her masters in museum studies in 2004 in London and has since worked for many museums around the U.S., such as the Antique Boat Museum in Upstate New York, Springs Preserve in Las Vegas, the U.S. Marshals Museum in Arkansas, and the Sutter County Museum in Yuba City, California. Originally from Eugene, she followed the construction of the Corvallis Museum and found herself applying for the position of executive director.

Covid has had a significant impact on the Benton county museums. The brand new Museum that opened in February of this year was completed in late 2019 and set to open in April 2020 but was significantly set back by the pandemic. And although this Corvallis Location is much larger, costing $11.5 million to build, the Philomath Museum visitor count has not yet dropped. After being closed for nearly a year, the Museums are once again opening exhibits for the community. The upcoming display "Picturing Women Inventors" is a Smithsonian poster exhibition with an extra 24 women brought by the Benton County Historical Society.