Grover Center: Museum and Historical Society — Attraction in Shelbyville

Behind its bright blue doors we walked up a wide marble staircase to the front desk. We were greeted by Sarah, the docent on duty. She was quite friendly and gave us a quick summary of the museum and what we could expect to see. She even let us peek behind the scenes at an upcoming exhibit and a back office where they were working on a project identifying local cemeteries. 🪦

We checked out some print art, a room full of trains, and then transported ourselves back to 1910 as we entered “The Streets of Old Shelby” exhibit. 🖼️🚂

I was not expecting such an elaborate exhibit. I’m still not sure how they fit it all inside the modestly-sized building. But somehow they managed to build an entire streetscape with functional facades housing historically accurate artifacts.

The brick street was actually several intersecting roads. There were functional lamp posts and shop signs. Sounds of the bustling town could be heard in the air. I even saw a bird’s nest in a downspout. 🪹

There was a train, a depot, hotel, saloon, hardware store, printing shop, blacksmith, seamstress, post office, bakery, wood shop, livery stable, soda fountain, pharmacy, bank, church, florist, cemetery, doctor’s office, schoolhouse, outhouse, attorney’s office, barber shop, butcher, jail, grocery, and even a telephone operator booth!

Each store had a placard displaying their sponsor. I liked that a local attorney sponsored the attorney’s office, a church sponsored the church, and a florist sponsored the florist shop. The outhouse was sponsored by the Shelby County Health Department. 🤣

Inside the pharmacy at the soda fountain we came across Loretta and her granddaughter, Emma. They were serving up root beer floats and we snagged three of them. As we enjoyed our treats we had a wonderful conversation with Loretta, as she told us about living in Shelbyville. We even got to meet Rachael, the Executive Director of the Shelby County Tourism & Visitor’s Bureau.

As we left 1910 Shelbyville we headed downstairs to a few other exhibits.

First was about Shelbyville’s connection to Japan. I learned about their Japanese “sister cities”, and the rise of Japanese manufacturing in the county.

In a large room was the “Building Shelby County” exhibit that took us through the county’s development in agriculture and industry. I learned about Kennedy Car Liner— both the product and the company. I also dressed up like a frontiersman, living in my small cabin with my chickens. My daughter refused to put on the frontier dress. 🤣 🐓

The final exhibit was about photography. I stood for several minutes examining an old movie projector from The Strand Theatre, finding it very complex for something made so long ago. 📽️

Our time at The Grover Center was fun and fascinating. I would encourage anyone in the surrounding area to spend some time there. If you’re a real history nut you’ll need to give yourself the entire day to really absorb the...

This is a neat lil museum for our small town to have in it. Its much larger than it seems from the road. They have quite a few old machines from when Shelbyville was first becoming a city. A lot of hard work and dedication went into the creation of the small rebuilt town, built inside the museum, for everyone's exploration. They also have an extensive model train and train memorabilia collection. They are located across the street from the local public library and this would make a great place for elementary school teachers to bring their class full of children to give them a look into what it was like living over 100 years ago. I especially liked the large cash register with all the crazy buttons and levers on it and just image that being high tech back in the day for businesses to use in...

The museum was very unique. It highlighted the progression of Shelbyville in a very interesting way. They had a train exhibit and a 1900's village replica. The staff was very friendly. It is free to enter. They offer free root beer floats on Saturdays ( see my YouTube page for more details). There is a collection box near the entry staircase for donations. It is the perfect place for you to make a donation and feel it will be used well. There is also a vaudeville exhibit in the basement....so cool! I highly recommend a visit to...