Museum to restore original portico, continues search for time capsule

The Mountain Home Historical Museum will be celebrating centennial anniversary of its building, originally a Carnegie Library throughout 2008, and in conjunction with the Mountain Home Public Library will be celebrating 100 years of library services in the city.

In preparations for the anniversary of the 1908 groundbreaking for the building, the portico for the museum will be restored using a grant from the Steele-Reese Foundation Special Project Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation.

"Using funds from the grant, along with City of Mountain Home support, the Mountain Home Historical Society will bring back the important historical craftsmanship of 1908," said Museum Director Nancy Marshall.

"For a century, generations of Mountain Home and Elmore County have walked under this portico. The Carnegie Public Library and now the Mountain Home Historical Museum will be inviting 2008 citizens to walk into history marking another milestone for our community," she said.

Museum officials also are on a special mission to locate the cornerstone for the building. The Mountain Home Maverick newspaper wrote, on July 2, 1908, that "Last Tuesday night, June 30th the corner stone for the new Carnegie library was laid. About 300 citizens were present to witness this important event and the ceremonies as conducted by the village board went off without a hitch and proved interesting to the large crowd present.

"The Mountain Home band was present and opened the exercises with two selections after which L.J. Weaver, president of the village council, in a few well chosen remarks, made the opening address of the evening. He read a list of the documents to be sealed and enclosed in the corner stone which was as follows: A copy of the Mountain Home Maverick, Republican, Watchman, S.I. Herald issues of Jan. 1908, Daily Statesman, Capital News, a history of the Entre Nous, Sub Rosa and Artemesia Clubs and a letter from Andrew Carnegie. Mr. Weaver was followed by Dr. McLoean, who gave a very thoughtful address along the lines of benefits derived from a public library, and its value to a city.

"After the close of his address Mr. Weaver placed the box containing the above mentioned documents in the corner stone where they would be tightly sealed and cemented into the walls of the building to be discovered by future generations that they may know of the time and conditions of the world that existed in 1908."

"We would love to locate this historic box for our events in 2008 and hope the Hummel Architects PLLC has documents that may show where the stone was cemented into the wall," said Museum Director Nancy Marshall.

"We have the floor plans but it does not show the cornerstone location."