Centralia Area Historical Society
Around 1960 Kenny Oestrich started going to sales and collecting items that were from Centralia. He put those items in a spare bedroom of his home. To his amazement the room was full in about one year. He then took 1/2 of his garage, remodeled it and moved his collection there, calling it "The Centralia Room".
Our local Centralia newspaper, The Sentinel, did an article about Kenny's collection. A local businessman, Nate Rothschild owned the old Glore Lumber Co. building and after reading the article about Kenny's collection called to offer items he'd found in the lumber company building. After Nate viewed the contents of "The Centralia Room" he proposed the idea of starting a museum with Kenny. And, with the help of a local group of men and women, a meeting was held to begin the process of bringing this museum of Centralia forward.
Nate offered the 2nd floor of the lumber company building, but, there was a problem with the entrance and gaining access to the upstairs rooms. The committee decided to wait a couple of weeks in order to see what could be done to rectify the problems. However, during the two-week period, a fire destroyed the entire Glore Lumber Company building.
The old Topper's building in the 100 block of East Broadway was offered to the group. There would be no rent charged but the museum would pick up the expense of the utilities. People started coming in and donating items to the museum's collection. It wasn't long before they had outgrown the space in the new building. Ralph Sprehe offered the old Kohl & Meyer building to the group which is pictured on our home page. The group accepted and this is where we are today.
We are still collecting donated items and also have items on loan. Our collection has grown to occupy 2 full floors and getting ready to expand to the 3rd floor in the very near future. Come and visit us and let the museum conjure up the historical memories of yesteryear, learn a few new things about our town and the surrounding community in Marion County.
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