The Scott County Historical Society has been around for 50 years, only about half of them at Stans Museum. In 1968 a group of citizens got together to save their local history – much like every other historical society.
Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, Belle Plaine
Many of our original members and board were from the Belle Plaine area, and one of our first projects was preserving and restoring the beautiful Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Belle Plaine, and the addition of restrooms. Along with this project, the Society worked on the Minnesota Valley Restoration Project, resulting in the formation of Murphy’s Landing (now known as The Landing).
SCHS members not only worked on these projects, but they also set about collecting the items that would be the beginning of our over 50,000 piece collection. Most of the early items were kept in members homes or at Murphy’s Landing. Eventually, moving to our new home in 1995.
The Stans Museum came about through a very generous donation from the Stans Foundation. Maurice Stans grew up in Shakopee; he was a geeky little kid that loved math. Eventually he became an accountant and helped form the Alexander Grant Company (now Grant Thornton). Answering a call from President Eisenhower, Maurice entered public life and was the director of the budget for the Eisenhower administration. He completed his public service in the Nixon cabinet as the Secretary of Commerce*. Along the way, he always kept Shakopee close to his heart, donating funds to support local students, Murphy’s Landing, and eventually the SCHS.
Maurice Stans
Maurice’s foundation, The Stans Foundation, donated the grounds, his boyhood home, and the museum to the Scott County Historical Society in 1995. The museum, built by Laurent Builders, had a gift store, Stans and Africa exhibits, offices, and a multi-purpose room. The original floor-plan is basically the same – but the content has significantly shifted to a more Scott County – local focus. Thanks to board planning and a generous donation from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, we made changes to the building to better serve our communities.
Original Floor Plan
Gone is the African travels exhibit – in its place is an open gallery on local topics. The African diorama is now much needed archival storage. The center hallway is more defined with walls separating the original “Business/Govt. & Family/Shakopee” galleries, creating three defined exhibit gallery spaces – two of which are dedicated to Scott County topics. The “Multi-purpose Classroom” still does double duty as our research library and public programs space. The “Conference” room is now a work-room; the “Office” is the curator office, and “Sec.” is the director’s office. The entry is more welcoming and we added an education/program closet.
Floor plan today
You’ll notice there is no collection storage in either floor-plan. That’s because the building was designed specifically for exhibits, collection storage was an afterthought. The collection is stored in the basement, which is only a fraction of this footprint.
Big thanks go out to: Dr. Lee Smith (SCHS 1st Executive Director), dedicated members, and early board members, such as Charlie Pass and Dr. R. Pistulka. Through the efforts of these people and a huge number of amazing volunteers, we are still going strong 50 years later.
Please join us in celebrating our 50th Anniversary on August 25, 2018 with a picnic in the Museum Garden. Lots of activities are planned – food, theater skit, 1968 photobooth, hands-on crafts and much more. Stop by between 10am and 3pm for great fun; help celebrate our past and look to our future.
*Click Here to learn more about Maurice Stans on our website