(Description was found on the Weimar Chamber of Commerce Website)
Housed in the Old Hill Bank building. focuses on exhibits tracing the city's history, beginning with the original land grant from the Spanish government to Henry Austin in 1831. Surveying tools and personal effects of Weimar's founder, D.W. Jackson, are displayed. The Main Street area gives a fascination glimpse of life into Weimar
's early days. Strolling down "the street," visitors can view a doctor's office with a full-size skeleton on a stand beside an old-fashioned examining table. Clearly in view is an amputation kit and a wooden leg belonging to Peg-Leg Strunk, an early area rancher. A dentist office, department store, bank, blacksmith forge, a facsimile of the old Mercury newspaper printing shop, a barber ship and beauty salon all make up the museum's Main Street. The early country kitchen exhibit is complete with a Hoosier cabinet, the pride of any 1900's housewife. First manufactured in Indiana, these cabinets took their name from the Hoosier state. A poppy-seed grinder is clamped to the worktable, ready for making poppy-seed filled Kolaches. Photographs of the people who created Weimar's history fill the museum's walls. Pictures include wedding couples, children at play, farmers at work, and buddies cooling off at a local saloon on a hot Texas day. Treasured keepsakes of the area families share space with souvenir artifacts from Weimar's commercial past. Old ledgers and hand cancellations in the Hill Bank exhibit show how financial institutions once operated. (A nearby three-ton black iron safe is ornamented in elaborate gold filigree.) Don't think the flapper-style evening gown in the bank room is out of place. It belonged to Pearl Hill Kindred, the first woman bank officer in Texas. The Military Room features uniforms and G.I. memorabilia from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf conflict. Among the most unusual items is a water-cooled machine gun from W.W. I and N**i banners from W.W.II. There's even a Civil War cannonball, recently unearthed east of town. The Military Room's exterior wall holds the Weimar's Veteran Roll, which lists area residents who have served in the United States Armed Forces. The pharmacy exhibit is most impressive. An inlaid majolica tile soda fountain from the old Farmer's Drug Store greets visitors to this section. One can easily imagine enjoying a long-ago Saturday afternoon with a cool fountain drink or scoop of ice cream. Pharmaceutical items, housed in original drug store cabinets and cases, include remedies and patent medicines such as Doctor Thatcher's Liver and Blood Syrup and Grandma's Household Remedies. A vast collection of mortars and pestles, pharmaceutical tools, bottles, and books line the walls. Prohibition-era prescriptions for alcohol, written in 1924 for a man and his wife prompt comments about "medicinal uses" of spirits. Both scripts carry the same date. Perhaps the couple was giving a party that evening? The museum takes pride in its preservation of Weimar's past. Among its holdings is an extensive collection of old Weimar school yearbooks and many photos of the community's early baseball teams. At one time, the majority of area citizens made their living in agriculture. One of the early cotton-seed oil mills in Texas existed in Weimar (1876). In 1926, when the Texas Pickle Company opened, farmers began planting cucumbers to supply the brining vats. The factory operated for thirty years. Displayed in the museum are such items as a bathtub-sized copper kettle used in commercial pickle producing and a manual hay press (circa 1900). This valuable modern piece of equipment (in its day) was shared by a group of farmers. The newest addition to the Heritage Society Museum is the Weimar Volunteer Firefighter's exhibit, which houses a vintage Seagrave pumper and hose truck, 1890 house cart, uniforms and photographs. The museum annex, located on Post Office Street, houses the "Rural Americana" exhibit. Against a country scene back drop, visitors can view examples of typical farm implements known to have come from area farmers.
