Our History
As the result of plans instituted by the Carnegie Library Board, the Grant County Historical Society was orginally organized March 25, 1905 at a public meeting in the library’s auditorium. Meetings were held semi-annually in March and September, and papers concerning local history were presented. The annual membership fee was 50 cents.
In 1929 Articles of Incorporation were filed with the State of Indiana. In 1958, a resolution to revitalize the Society was made by the Board of Directors of the Marion Chamber of Commerce.
The Society was again reorganized in 1964, and new Articles of Incorporation were filed. In 1965 a historial musuem was established in space made available by Dr. and Mrs. Merrill Davis in the north half of the Goldwaithe house at 205 North Washington Street until the building was sold several years later.
A new location for the Society’s activites and artifacts was provided in 1974 by the Eward Foundation in the residence at 2400 South Washington Street in Marion. When operating costs proved to be unaffordable, artifacts were stored.
In 1991 the Society’s remaining artificats, including the Octogenarian colletion, were transferred to the Marion Public Library in a renewal of the relationship between the Society and the Library.
Much like the 1920s, again in 2020 a pandemic threatened the vitaility of the Society save for a few persons who maintained interest. As the health of our nation, our county and our members were restored in 2022, so was the Society, and interest grew once again.
“History is a mighty drama, enacted upon the theatre of times, with suns for lamps and eternity for a background.”
Thomas Carlyle
Grant County Indiana Historical Society 