The proposed museum will be located in the building that houses the city's last whip manufacturing operation.
Robert G. Dewey, left, and Peter H. Martin are spearheading efforts by Westfield Museum Inc. to create a museum that will preserve, promote and display the city's industrial history.WESTFIELD – New efforts are underway to create a Westfield Museum to preserve, promote and display the city’s history, primarily its industrial history.
Westfield Museum Inc., created several years ago, and the newer Westfield Historic Industries Preservation Project formally merged July 1 in a cooperative effort to make the history museum a reality.
Soon the new Westfield Museum Inc. will launch a capital project aimed at raising the estimated $1 million necessary to “open the doors” of a facility at 360 Elm St..
Spearheading the project are Robert G. Dewey, a former city historical commissioner, and Peter H. Martin, whose family owns Westfield Whip Manufacturing Co.. Dewey is the former president of Westfield Museum Inc. while Martin assumed that duty on July 1.
The effort is to open a museum that features a static display of the city’s industrial past along with a living museum using the manufacturing operations of Westfield Whip Manufacturing Co., the city city’s last operating whip company which still resembles the 1890s manufacturing process.
The company, as a tenant at 360 Elm St., is key to making the museum self-sustaining, Martin and Dewey said.
Martin said Westfield’s historical artifacts currently are maintained at different places through the city, many of then located at Westfield Athenaeum.
The working museum will seek to cooperating with other agencies and organizations to showcase those artifacts in a changing display at 360 Elm St., he said.
Westfield Whip Manufacturing Co.’s building is already listed in the National Register of Historic Buildings and has been benefactor some Westfield Community Preservation Act funding for a feasibility study that supports creation of the museum.
Martin and Dewey said additional CPA funding, along with state and federal grants and the pending capital campaign to help finance creation of the proposed museum.
“We need a sustainable museum that must be accessible to both handicapped and by hours of operation,” Martin said. “Westfield Whip as a tenant in the building assures sustainablity while serving as a live exhibit,” he said. The project will also be supported by on-going donations, various programs and projects and walking tours that the museum will host, Martin and Dewey said.
Dewey said the merger of the two organizations was favorable because “they complimented each other but were competing for the same dollars.”
Robert A. Plasse, a member of the museum board of directors and president of Westfield on Weekend, praised the merger saying “Two very energetic and hopeful organizations joined for the good of Westfield in preserving the city’s past. Working together will make this project move faster.”
Dewey said the static display of history planned for the first floor of the museum will change monthly and be coordinated with Westfield Athenaeum. He also has a goal to create a model of the former New Haven to Northampton Canal system that now ties in with the city’s Columbia Greenway Rail Trail.
Martin explained that renovation to the exterior of the museum will be limited because of its historic status but the first floor exhibit area will be modern in terms of technology and display areas.
Museum exhibits will also include outside activities such as walks through the nearby Mechanic Street Burial Ground.
Dewey and Martin hope to open the museum in about one year but acknowledge that full operation of the venue be done in phases, estimating a period of one to five years.