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Living Life After 50
March 2025
Lepird’s Model Train Hobby See Page 6
Elko Edition REaching ElkhaRt, kosciusko, noblE and lagRangE countiEs
Vol. 38, No. 1
www.seniorlifenewspapers.com
Goshen Historical Museum volunteers make new exhibit possible Text and Photos By LILLI DWYER Staff Writer The second floor of the Goshen Historical Museum stood empty and unused, covered in soot from a fire in the 1970s, for decades. Now, it’s open to the public thanks to the efforts of some of the museum’s board members and volunteers, including Executive Director Ron Hoke, Building Manager Steve Hrynewycz, Board President Jane Iwema, Ellen Straw, Chuck Rink, and Growth Coordinator Danae Wirth. There is now a furnished apartment and a medical examination room complete with an antique dentist’s chair. “It was a team effort for
WHAT’S COOKING? — Ron Hoke opens the old gas stove in the kitchen of the second floor apartment. When the apartment was a residence in the 40s, tenants carried coal for the furnace and ice for the kitchen ice box up 23 stairs.
sure,” said Hoke. Honorary board members Bob and Betty Cripe gave the museum seed money for the project. About $150,000 came from Indiana Historical Society and Elkhart County Community Foundation grants, with the rest donated by the community. Work on the second floor made up a chunk of the 6,000 volunteer hours that go into running the Goshen Historical Society every year, according to Wirth. “If you were a researcher, you were researching who lived up there. ... If you were a sessioner, you were sessioning items and looking at Continued on page 2
A PIECE OF GOSHEN HISTORY — Executive Director Ron Hoke has a chat with Danae Wirth, left, next to the roll-top desk in Goshen Historical Museum’s recently opened second floor. The desk once stood in a Goshen drug store and is a favorite item of volunteer Ellen Straw, who helped decorate the apartment.
ROOM WITH A VIEW — Visitors Susie Folker, left, and Tammy Packard look out the windows of the Goshen Historical Museum’s second floor onto Main Street. The living room of the apartment features a windup Victrola and other antique furniture.
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