| Additional Information: | In 1982, the large Italianate farmhouse of the former Marcus Sears and Kathryn Bell farm was slated for demolition. In response, the New Richmond Preservation Society was formed and worked to move the house 150 yards to adjacent property, surrounded by other nineteenth century farm buildings in order to preserve it. The society found success and continued to work to improve the buildings and site, establish a historic museum, and collect historic documents and artifacts related to the history of New Richmond. The following year the New Richmond Preservation Society supported an Intensive Survey of the city which was followed with the nomination of the West Side Historic District and an assortment of thirty local resources to the National Register of Historic Places.
A flea market was established in the barn of the Bell Farmstead in 1984 and has operated continuously since. Irv and Mary Sather, in particular, were pivotal leaders in the creation of the Heritage Center and have served in leadership roles and written histories of the community. Irv served as the president of the board for the Heritage Center beginning in 1985, while Mary served as the museum curator and wrote a series of publications and a weekly history column from the late 1960s to the present. The society proceeded to acquire more adjacent land through donations and added other threatened historic buildings, moved from elsewhere in the city and the surrounded region, to the site. In 1989, the New Richmond Preservation Society, that operates the Heritage Center, agreed to lease and maintain 16.3 acres of city property and improve it with nature trails and plantings as the Paperjack Greenway. The Heritage Center presently consists of twelve historic buildings, extensive collections of historic artifacts and records, and a number of interpretive nature trails on the grounds. The affiliated New Richmond Preservation Society has also worked to publish a series on various aspects of New Richmond’s history.
The New Richmond Heritage Center, essentially an open-air historic museum and a collection of various historic buildings from across western Wisconsin, is a relatively rare resource type in the state. There are approximate equivalents in places like Old World Wisconsin, Pendarvis in Mineral Point, and Heritage in Hill in Allouez. Most of these other examples have existed for a longer period of time, are arranged to serve an ethnographic purpose, or preserve historic buildings on their original site. Revisiting the Heritage Center as an historic resource in the future is advised.
The resources on the Heritage Center grounds include the Marcus Sears and Kathrine Bell Farm House, constructed in 1884 and already listed in the National Register of Historic Places along with the adjacent Bell Farm barn, granary, and silo; the Sears Farm Windmill, constructed on site in 1916; the August and Mary Anderson House, a gabled ell constructed on the north side of New Richmond in 1890, with additions built in 1894, and moved to the Heritage Center in 1998; the Carl Gravermoen Cabin, a log cabin built in 1887 by Norwegian immigrants, moved in 1972 and restored and then moved again to the Heritage Center in 1995; the Al and Ruth Route Store, constructed in the small settlement of Ubet in 1933 and moved to the Heritage Center in 1998; the James Lee Log Barn, a log barn constructed in the Town of Stanton northeast of New Richmond in circa 1875 and moved to the Heritage Center in the 1990s; the German Evangelical Immanuel Church, a Gothic Revival church constructed in Superior in 1891, moved in 1898 by its congregation, and moved again to the Heritage Center during the 1990s; the Camp Nine School House, constructed in 1902 and moved from Glenwood City in 2000; the adjacent Camp Nine Outhouse, reconstructed on site in 2000; the Heritage Center Bandstand, constructed on site in 2004; the Agricultural Pavilion, built on site to resemble an agricultural machine shed and constructed around 2010; the Heritage Center History Shed, completed on site in 2011 and designed to resemble an agricultural shed building. |
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