“It is a grand history that we have to tell in Effingham County, and we are showcasing that,” said Donaldson.

After a lengthy battle to save the historical structure built in 1870-71, the courthouse reopened on Nov. 11, 2012 as a museum. Since that day, the Effingham County Cultural Center and Museum Association has showcased the transformation of the main floor from a functioning courthouse into a functioning museum.

“The thing that I have noticed is whenever people look at our museum, they say, ‘This is really nice,’” said Donaldson. “They say, ‘Who put this together for you,’ and we say, ‘This is all volunteer, we did it ourselves.’ People are amazed.”

First-floor features share the history of transportation through a large model train and roadway display; the prominent history of military service by area veterans; historical figures like Ada Kepley, who was the first woman in the country to earn a law degree; the 1949 St. Anthony’s Hospital fire; Effingham native George Bauer, who helped write the G.I. Bill; and many other stories and displays.

Donaldson and the 50 or so volunteers who make the operation of the museum possible have now set their sights on the second floor of the old courthouse. Donaldson hopes to repurpose what was originally the main courtroom into a meeting area to hold everything from class reunions to wedding receptions.

“We want to make that second floor a place where we can generate funds to run the courthouse,” said Donaldson. “From day one we have had people say, ‘My daughter is getting married. Can we have the wedding in the courthouse?’”

For the last several months, volunteers have been unearthing the original design of the second floor, which was renovated into office space for courthouse officials over the years. Much of the Formica and old carpet from the last major renovation in the 1960s has been removed to reveal the rustic stately beauty of the era.

“This is like archaeology for a building,” said Donaldson. “When we pulled up the carpeting, we could see the cut marks for the curves in the original flooring.”

With significant work needed in the space, Donaldson and fellow volunteer, Jim Lange, approached the Effingham City Council recently to request the city’s financial assistance for the project. Donaldson asked the council for $75,000 in assistance, which would be put primarily toward restrooms on the second floor.

During the council meeting discussion, Mayor Merv Gillenwater expressed optimism about the city’s assistance, but informed Donaldson that that amount of money wasn’t figured into this fiscal year’s budget. Commissioner Matt Hirtzel suggested a multiyear assistance package for the project, which would stretch the $75,000 over several years. The issue is being considered by the council and will come back at a future meeting for a vote.

Donaldson did inform the council that the museum is exhausting all possibilities to generate money for the project. The Effingham County Board pays the utility bills for the museum, which reach over $10,000 a year, and the museum is considering corporate sponsorship.

Ideally, ECCCMA would like to have the project completed by Christmas, but that “totally depends on the cash flow,” said Donaldson.

The expansive second floor is a step back in time and space. Completely open after the recent removal of a drop ceiling and office partitions, a large amount of work is clearly needed.

“We plan on putting the original courtroom back the way it was,” said Donaldson. “From historical records, people in the area were most proud of this space.”

Volunteer carpenters have rebuilt the raised area where the court proceedings were held, said Donaldson. He added that two old banisters, found by a volunteer, will help complete the look.

“We don’t have any pictures of how this looked,” said Donaldson.

Donaldson pointed to the cost of the banister posts, which were priced at $75 apiece for 150 of them, as an example of the cost of the building.

Other work includes repainting the tin ceiling throughout the second floor and refurbishing plasterwork in the dome, which was uncovered when the drop ceiling was removed. Donaldson said Dr. Ruben Boyajian has offered to paint murals of local historical scenes in the large domed area, which reaches to the peak of the three-story building. Hardwood flooring, fire safe doors, a side room renovation for a catering space and many other features are in the works. Donaldson said a contractor assessed the project before volunteers started on it, and the total cost to renovate the space was an estimated $350,000. He added that price will continually be reduced by the massive amount of volunteer hours.

“We are working diligently to showcase this area,” said Donaldson.

As part of his rationale for the city providing funds for the project, Donaldson pointed to the tourism dollars generated in Effingham by the existence of the museum. In 2013, 2,160 people from around the state, country and world visited the courthouse museum. Donaldson said about a third of those who visited didn’t sign the guestbook.

“We had about 3,000 visitors last year, and we are on track to meet that again this year,” he said, noting that mobile displays will be featured on the second floor for regular museum visitors. “People tell us they want to come back and see the museum again when the second floor is finished.”

For Donaldson, who taught history and sociology at Effingham High School for over 30 years, the incalculable hours he and other volunteers have put into the project are completely worthwhile.

“One of the things that sociologists look at is that in a lot of towns across America today, especially in towns along the interstate, is that they all have the same feel to them,” he said, calling the trend “Generica.”

“The thing that is very important is that we don’t do that. We aren’t a generic community. We are so much more than what sits along the interstate exits,” he said.

Having a strong sense of local history and community is also what creates value in locals’ minds.

“I taught sociology for many years, and the thing that I have found in terms of what attracts people to live in a community is that it doesn’t have a generic sense,” said Donaldson. “That when people leave the town, they have a sense they lost something. The courthouse museum helps provide that feeling.”

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Information from: Effingham Daily News, http://www.effinghamdailynews.com

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Once a tourist magnet, the Red Location Museum in New Brighton outside the southern city of Port Elizabeth houses hundreds of “memory boxes” containing the life stories of anti-apartheid activists, including the late liberation icon Nelson Mandela.

The modernity of the 22 million rand ($2 million) building, which won several international architectural awards, stands in total contrast to the plastic and corrugated iron structures which serve as houses for the neighboring community.

The museum closed nine months ago in the face of threats by residents to assault visitors and efforts to reopen it have been met with violent protests.

Its website says only that it “is closed due to community protests,” in what is one of the oldest settled black townships of Port Elizabeth.

The building has now been stripped by people helping themselves to electrical wiring, water pipes, power sockets, fencing and wooden fittings for their shacks.

Like many of the poor around South Africa, the New Brighton residents feel they have not benefited enough from the end of apartheid and the rise to power of Mandela’s African National Congress.

“We raised this issue from the beginning – in 2005 when they started building this museum,” community leader Thembisile Klaas told AFP.

“Why build a house for dead people when us the living do not have a roof over our heads?

“We are living in shacks which get flooded each time it rains … and yet the municipality spends millions of rands building a museum.”

Community leaders say they have demanded houses for years but have only received empty promises from the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality – the local authority for the area.

Some security guards hired to patrol the perimeter of the building – which was also used as a research facility by historians – have abandoned their posts in fear for their lives.

“The conditions are getting worse. The fencing has been cut in several places and there is no lighting,” said one guard.

“Even the covers of the drains outside have been pilfered. It is dangerous, you don’t know when you will be attacked,” he said.

“The building used to be very busy and we used to mingle with international tourists here but now it’s a ghost.”

Deputy mayor Chippa Ngcolomba said the housing problem was being addressed but complained that the issue was being used as a “political football.”

“We have put in place a number of security interventions to make sure the museum is safeguarded,” Ngcolomba said.

“We are still investigating the situation so as to come up with a long-term solution.”

Port Elizabeth was a hotbed of the anti-apartheid struggle where ANC leaders such as Govan Mbeki, the late father of former president Thabo Mbeki, once lived.

Chris du Preez, the museum’s acting assistant director, says no artifacts or documents were stolen or damaged during the looting.

The museum’s “memory boxes” – 12, unmarked, rusted, room-size containers – were inspired by the boxes migrant workers used to hold their prized possessions when separated from their families. Each offers a different vision of the struggle in South Africa.

Large portraits of apartheid activists are also on exhibit, along with photographs of migrants laboring in South African mines and others depicting the horrors of apartheid such as black people being whipped by police.

“We are lucky that the thieves have not yet laid their hands on important and valuable documents, files and other materials inside or on display inside museum,” he said.

“They have been stealing things which form part of the building structure and not the records, files and other items kept inside,” said Du Preez.

The museum won the 2006 Lubetkin Prize awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects as the best new building outside the European Union.

Its open space design and saw-tooth roofs are seen as a reference to the port city’s industrial activity and strong trade union history.

City authorities could not say when the museum would reopen, while community activists said it would not happen until they had decent houses.

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Reynolds previously led a $54 million campaign to turn around Ford’s Theatre and said he sees similar potential in the museum next to the White House founded in 1869 by William W. Corcoran as a place to “encourage American genius.” Reynolds testified Wednesday that he could marshal dozens of major donors to save the financially struggling Corcoran and make it a world-class center for creativity and innovation in art and technology.

“People want to be part of something that’s special, that’s bigger than themselves,” Reynolds said, later discussing a list of 23 potential alternate trustees he said would help him turn the Corcoran around. “It’s all about vision and leadership.”

However, Reynolds testified that in dealing with the Corcoran over the past two years, he observed a chaotic “goat rodeo” behind the scenes. In late 2012, he said Corcoran officials asked him to become their next board chairman then rebuffed his interest, canceled meetings and blocked trustees from talking with him.

Instead, Corcoran officials signed a deal to merge with George Washington University and the National Gallery of Art. A judge is now considering whether to approve the proposed merger, which would turn over the art, college and real estate to the two larger institutions. Witnesses have testified those assets are worth about $2 billion.

Corcoran attorney Charles Patrizia disputed Reynolds’ version of events late Wednesday, saying his testimony isn’t supported by the record.

A key sticking point in talks about the Corcoran’s future has been the notion of selling art to fund the museum. Corcoran Chairman Harry Hopper called that “the third rail of American art” because it would endanger the museum’s accreditation. Reynolds said he proposed selling some art and putting the focus on the college instead. Artworks kept in storage could be sold, he said, in order to buy contemporary art.

Hopper, who has led the Corcoran as board chairman since 2009, testified that he has spent many hours exploring options after years of financial troubles. The museum had been plagued by a failed campaign in the early 2000s to raise $160 million to build an addition designed by Frank Gehry and later struggled during the nation’s financial crisis, he said.

A 2011 consultant’s report found the Corcoran “has struggled to find a successful business model for 40 years or more.” Between 1985 and 2004, the Corcoran had a surplus in only two years. The museum also faces mounting renovation needs with some estimates surpassing $100 million.

So Corcoran officials considered selling the building or partnering with a university or museum. In 2013, they began negotiations with the University of Maryland, which proposed investing $95 million in the Corcoran and taking on the art college, according to documents revealed in court. But months passed, and Maryland officials came back with a drastically reduced offer, Hopper said.

That’s when Corcoran officials revisited earlier talks with George Washington University and the National Gallery of Art.

Under a plan finalized in May, the Corcoran building would continue operating as a museum, though with less gallery space. Most of the building would be devoted to the Corcoran School of Art and Design as part of George Washington University, and the university would renovate the historic Beaux-Arts building. The National Gallery of Art would acquire the bulk of the Corcoran’s 17,000 artworks and run the exhibit programs.

George Washington University President Steven Knapp testified Tuesday that the deal saves the Corcoran legacy and is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create something truly powerful” with a new model for arts education.

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Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat .

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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