By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
The Erlanger Historical Society and the Elsmere Historical Society have joined forces, transforming and reorganizing into a conjoined historical society, headquartered in the Elsmere Community Center at 179 Dell Street, and they would like to invite like-minded individuals who want to preserve history to come and see what they are all about.
“We are having a special dinner meeting on August 10 at 6:30 p.m. and anyone who loves history can come,” said Patricia Hahn, treasurer of the new group. “Paul Dusing has agreed to come and he has about 50 slides about the old Dusing Ice House. We would love it if people would come and bring their memorabilia to share with us.”
The dinner will be catered from JB BBQ. There is no charge to come to the dinner meeting. If people enjoy the evening, they can join the Erlanger Elsmere Historical Society for just $25 a year.
One of the goals of this relatively new organization is to gather people who want to be part of the organization, as well as to have people come and share their pictures and memories of what the city of Elsmere was like, all the way back to the beginning of the city.
Another goal is to take a lot of the memorabilia and compile it all into a book about Elsmere, similar to the official books about the history of other cities in the area.
“There is a building that was an old school, one of the oldest in the entire area, called the Dunbar school,” said Hahn. “That building has been renovated by the group HONK, or Housing Opportunities of Northern Kentucky, an organization that provides a lease-to-own pathway for people.”
She said the group would like to attract the Kentucky Heritage Council, so that the city of Elsmere can install a historical sign, like those along the sides of roads that tell the history about a nearby edifice, so that people can tell that the building used to be a school.
The Erlanger Historical Society was authorized by then Mayor Fred Thomas in 1990. He called a few people and they called a few people and pretty soon there was a group of volunteers who were more than willing to work to preserve the history of their city.
Under their leadership, the group formed a 501 C3 and acquired grants. With the grant money, they were able to help the city get ownership of the only all wooden railroad depot on the Southern railroad between Cincinnati and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Of course, in acquiring it for the city, it had to be moved 100 feet, and that’s what they did.
Later, city Engineer Jim Viox found out about a caboose that was being discontinued in the northeast, and he managed to persuade those in authority that the caboose would find an excellent home in Erlanger, next to the depot. Viox accomplished the necessary arrangements to have a broad, sturdy base with railroad tracks in Erlanger so that the caboose was able to be lifted onto the new home tracks as soon as it was delivered.
The small depot was turned into a museum, and quite a lot of items were gathered through the years, but they did, ultimately, belong to the city. After the pandemic, when the volunteers were finally allowed back into the depot, the city decided they were going to turn the depot into a community center, and there would not be room for the Historical society. The Depot is currently closed.
Erlanger Mayor Jessica Fette said Tuesday that the plans were always to reopen the Depot, but plans have been slowed by the increased cost of materials associated with the renovation of the building. She said eventually the depot will house the museum plus a community room that can be rented. She also said they are dealing with handicapped accessibility issues.
Volunteers turned their attention to their sister city, Elsmere, and the orphaned society was welcomed with open arms by Mayor Marty Lenhoff and members of the Elsmere Historical Society. The two societies merged, with one goal, that of preserving history for the two cities in particular, and the NKY area in general. A year later, and the merged society has about 65 members, fifty of those lifetime members, and they meet regularly, the second Thursday of every month.
Every month the group has someone to come in and talk to them about different places in the cities which deserve preservation or bring back memories that need to be preserved.
“We need a place to pull us together, something like the Dunbar school,” said Carol Kirkwood, who belongs to several Historical societies in Northern Kentucky. “We need not to do this in retrospect — we need to be ready when places and opportunities come up. We need to build our numbers of people who love history, and ensure and assure them they can tell their story their way.”