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.

Text and Photos
By Lilli Dwyer
InkFreeNews

Editor’s Note: This article was taken from the March issue of Senior Life ELKO edition.

GOSHEN — 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 sure,” said Hoke.

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.

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 the things (in storage) that would go up there,” she said. “Jane worked very closely with Ron on the fundraising and mailings, they were very persistent.”

After two years of fundraising, planning, construction and redecorating, the second floor opened in December 2024.

According to Goshen city directories, the first tenant after the building was constructed in 1888 was Dr. Louella Day. It continued to be rented by doctors and dentists until it became a residence in 1941.

Through looking at historical photographs and GHS research, the team was able to put together a picture of what the apartment would have looked like at the time.

In 2017, GHS’ John Hertzler interviewed Georgia Snyder, who had lived in the apartment with her husband as a young expectant mother in the 40s. From her, GHS learned about the experiences of carrying coal for the furnace and ice for the ice box

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.

up the stairs — a problem alleviated by the newly built elevator. They also found out the floors were actually oak underneath the soot and linoleum.

Once the apartment was cleaned, Hoke said, “the original fixtures were all up here. It was like a time capsule.”

Much of the furniture had been in storage at the museum for a long time, so GHS had an opportunity to display what they had.

Straw, who also does the display windows in the front of the museum, has been with GHS since 2016. She is trained in interior design and had a hand in decorating the apartment. She cites the roll-top desk from Cap Johnson’s Drug Store as one of her favorite items.

In a personal touch, the table in the dining room was made by Straw’s father in the 40s, when he worked at a veneer plant in Goshen.

“I really like it. It was made here in Goshen … everybody can appreciate the work he did,” she said.

Hoke said he feels “satisfied” with the project now that it’s complete.

Exhibits like this, he mentioned, can be useful educational tools. Students often come through the museum on field trips and “it makes the tours for the kids more impactful, I think. … Now that we have an apartment in front we can actually put the equipment in context. We have the old wringer washer, we have the old windup Victrola machine. We can actually show them, okay, this is what it looked like.”

The Goshen Historical Museum, 124 S. Main St., Goshen, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

An antique dentistry chair sits in the exam room portion of the second floor. The apartment was rented by doctors and dentists from 1880 to 1941, when it became a residence.