Crittenden County Historical Museum

04/13/2026

A new item recently added to the wonderful Marion High School Memory room is the Basketball Sports Jacket and basketball pin that belonged to Audrey "Sonny" Belt. He graduated from Marion High School in 1955. Donated by his granddaughter Shanna Belt.

03/29/2026

The Crittenden County Historical Museum will be opening for the season on Wednesday April 1st, at 10:00 am. This year we have a unique item that has returned to its hometown. It is a beautiful communion table from the Main Street Presbyterian church that was torn down in 1968.
To give some history and meaning to this item here's a little history of the church how this item has returned to the community from which it came.
The church was build in 1899 by the Cumberland Presbyterians. The location was on the corner of Main St. and East Depot St., where the barber shop parking lot is today. It served the community for over 67 years.
In 1966 the membership had fallen low and the small congregation united with the First United Presbyterian Church ( where the Museum is now located).
The historic old church sat empty until 1968 when the lot was sold to Otha Smith, a Marion businessman, who tore down the old landmark in preparation of location a used car lot on the site.
When the church closed in 1966, members of the congregation were given permission to take items that were in the church so they would be saved.
Bill and Birdie Farmer, members of the church, saved the beautiful communion table that was used in the church.
The table was eventually passed down to their son, Mike Farmer, who now lives in Henderson.
Mike, wanting the table returned to its original home, has donated the table to the museum, so its history and beauty can be seen and enjoyed by everyone.

03/16/2026

From the estate of the late Helen Teer Cullen, these annuals that belonged to her in her school days, have been donated to the Museum for the Marion Memory room and the Crittenden County School room in her memory.

03/07/2026

So many school memories are on display in the School Memory Room. This room contains pictures of the old one room schools, plus lots of memorabilia from the old school days, too numerous to mention. The Museum will be opening next month, plan a day and come visit all the wonderful old items of yesteryear.
In today's visit we find a 1953-54 Mattoon Elementary School Panther's Basketball warm-up sweater, worn by the late Paul Heady.

And in the year 1974-75 the basketball uniform Number 11 worn by Ronnie Heady in the 8th grade. A historic uniform as this was the last eighth grade team at the county school. In the fall of 1975 all the 7th and 8th grades of Mattoon, Shady Grove, Frances and Tolu were moved to the newly formed Crittenden County Middle School located at Marion.

These uniforms were donated to the Museum by Ronnie Heady.

02/14/2026

For Valentine's Day Memories
In the Marion School Memory Room, there are all kinds of past memories to look at and read about. Some of the latest items are notebooks belonging to the late Ms. Helen Moore. Here are a few Valentine pictures of the past.

01/27/2026

01/27/2026

The Museum has a wonderful collection of vintage and historical photographs. As the saying goes, "A picture can be worth a thousand words." That's why we try to collect as show as many as possible. Here is a collection that was donated to the Museum from the Jan. 30, 1902 ice storm. An item from the Crittenden Press helps explain.
Jan. 30, 1902
The rain, sleet and snow of the past few days had done much damage. The telephone lines are down all over the city and the streets are covered with ice, making it very difficult to travel.
Faulty roofs on some of the business houses are responsible for much damage to mercantile stock.

01/10/2026

The Museum is still closed for now, but we are looking forward to opening for this year on April 1st, 2026.

Many interesting items are waiting for your visit, such as these beautiful Victorian Purses.

In the early 1900s purses were stylized and Victorian, like you see in stained glass windows and lamp shapes from that period.
Mesh was the preferred material. Some Mesh purses were simply left plain to reflect the beauty of the metal itself, (we have two of these plain mesh,) but many featured beautiful colored enameling, and some with saucy beading, we have several of these.

11/27/2025

Thanksgiving Day - what was once even more important to the citizens of Marion than eating on Thanksgiving day?

Something bigger and looked forward to more than eating turkey on Thanksgiving Day, was the annual Marion Terrors and Caldwell County Tigers annual football game.

Take a visit in the Marion Memory room at the Museum and you will find all kinds of wonderful memorabilia from this era in our school/sports history. Annuals and Pictures of many of the players, their jersey's, footballs and even a helmet from the team. The helmet is definitely different from what they have today.

11/10/2025

For Veteran's Day. Remembering some of our local Veterans from the military collection at the Museum. This is only a few of the pictures and items that we have on display. We remember and thank you for your service.

11/03/2025

The Historical Museum closed the last of October for the season. We will open again in April of 2026. Thank you to everyone that supported the museum this year, either by stopping by for a visit or a monetary donation. Our books are still available during the off season, you can pick them up at Marion Tourism Office on South Main Street or by contacting me, Brenda Underdown, at [email protected], or 270-965-2082. They make a great Christmas present.

10/15/2025

Pictures and memories are about all we have left of many of our little communities that were once a big part of our history. In the museum's "Community Room" there are pictures and items that help keep these old time communities and their memory alive.