Wilson Brewer Park Foundation Board Chair Doug Bailey cleans leaves from the depot gutters at the park recently. Earlier in that day, Bailey and fellow Board member Mark Robertson trimmed trees along the Depot's east side.

Things have changed at Wilson Brewer Park. With recent progress in restoration of the first Hamilton County Courthouse, and the clear success of its Fall Festival last month, the Wilson Brewer Park Foundation Board is working hard to make the park both more compelling to museum visitors and more welcoming to families.

All this was front and center at the board’s monthly meeting Wednesday night.

Long-time volunteers Darlene Dingman and Carolynn Miller reported a successful end to the park season, which runs each year from May through October. Dingman tallied 160 visitors at the Depot Museum in October. They came from 24 cities and towns across Iowa, and eight states. One hundred and fifty-four dollars was collected in free will donations. There is no admission charge at any of the park’s historic buildings.

Miller thanked everyone for a “beautiful and successful October,” citing visitors from “many class reunions” to Mulberry Center Church, where she serves as church coordinator.

A highlight was the Sunday, October 20, service held in the church by Asbury United Methodist Church. Miller recalled, “The church was completely full, and it was a beautiful service with old-fashioned songs.” Seeing the church used for its intended purpose was clearly moving for Miller, who grew up in the Mulberry Center rural neighborhood northeast of Webster City, and attended services in Mulberry Center Church for 42 years.

That the museum complex needs many more volunteers than at present isn’t lost on the new board.

Kolleen Taylor, whose duties include responsibility for Mulberry Center Church and the 1901 Illinois Central Depot, as well as park operations, voiced several ideas for recruiting, retaining and rewarding volunteers. A new committee is being formed to identify where volunteers are needed, and what work they would do at the park.

John Hemingway, whose family has deep roots in Webster City, volunteered to clean and install the stone facade from the second Hamilton County Courthouse near the first courthouse on the museum campus.

Enlisting the help of Habhab Construction Inc., of Webster City, Hemingway plans to powerwash the stones, then dig a trench line into a yet-to-be-determined site near the courthouse.

Both sets of letters from the second courthouse were saved when it was razed in the late 1960s. One of these has been sitting on the east side of the depot for many years. Another new committee will be formed to guide this work.

Treasurer Tamiann Parrott reported net revenues of $52,681 in October. Included in that was a check from Hamilton County covering ongoing restoration of the first Hamilton County Courthouse. She informed the board a donation of $2,000 had been received and will be put toward completion of the courthouse project. The donor wishes to remain anonymous.

Parrott reported new internet and telephone service plans with Ooma have been subscribed at a cost of $19.95 per month.

The park’s new public telephone number is 515-228-6600. It is in service now and an answering machine will record messages.

Parrott has also been looking into the best way to create a new website for the park. She told the board her research showed the cost to hire a professional website design firm would be “astronomical.” She’s investigating ways to get the work done at better value to the park, perhaps using local people with appropriate experience.

Finally, she reported the domain www.wilsonbrewerparkvillage.com is available and suggested the board claim it. At a cost of just $19 for the domain name, and $39 a month for maintenance and hosting, it’s a veritable bargain.

The board agreed.

Wilson Brewer Park is going all out again this year for Christmas In The City, Webster City’s annual citywide celebration. Santa will greet families in the historic log cabins, Christmas stories will be read in Harmony Center Country School, and a “make and take” Christmas ornament activity will be set up in the depot basement. A German village and nutcracker display will be on view in Mulberry Center Church, courtesy of the Schlotfeldt family. Trisha and Ryan Rupiper will be displaying their family’s vintage nativity scene, also at Mulberry Center Church.

All events are free and all will take place from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, December 7.

One noteworthy item from the meeting was Taylor’s discussion of how to interpret the park’s buildings to visitors. This, she explained, involves the time period each building is restored to, and having period-appropriate displays inside. She emphasized the need for both permanent and rotating exhibits to give visitors a reason to return for another look, as new artifacts are displayed and new historical stories told.

The meeting lasted nearly three hours, as the board simultaneously deals with deferred maintenance, new restoration projects, and the many aspects of running a better museum. Clearly, things have changed at Wilson Brewer Park.