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| Iowa State University student Matt Palan is working hard to help bring a new light to Britt's hobo history. He is part of a group of engineering students who have begun studying the museum and hope to see it put on the National Registry of Historic Places. (News-Tribune photo by Mary Loden) |
Bigger future for hobo museum?
By MARY LODEN, Of the News-Tribune
ISU engineering students head project to get hobo museum on national registry
A lot of good things have been happening for the Hobo Foundation lately, such as a couple people from Italy visiting the Hobo Museum and wanting to write a book and two people from Japan who are working on cataloging and writing about all the hobo artifacts.
But nothing can be better than a group of Iowa State University students taking an active interest in hobo history and culture and coming up with dozens of ideas on how to preserve it and help it thrive in the 21st century.
Bridget Belkaucemi, a landscape architecture instructor, accepted a lecture position at Iowa State University last year and also agreed to teach a class that could encompass students from several different disciplines.
Wondering what she could do that would be interesting and would tie into Iowa, she decided on a cultural study of the annual Britt Hobo Convention and the hobo sub-culture as a whole.
“I never went into the museum until last year,” said the sister of Jennifer Hughes, who also happens to be the sister-in-law to the Hobo Museum curators and Hobo Foundation board members Linda Hughes and her sister, Mary Jo Hughes.
“It's extremely unique and nationally significant,” Belkaucemi said about the museum, “and I knew no one had been interested in helping them with the design aspect.”
Students taking her Hobo Studio this semester spent several weeks researching the hobo era, beginning after the Civil War to present day, before touring the Hobo Museum, located in the old Chief Theater in Britt.
Students then broke into three groups, each focusing on a different concept. One group worked on redesign options for the current hobo collection housed in the theater and the theater itself. A second group worked on a new state-of-the-art facility to house the collection and the third concentrated on design concepts for a national hobo memorial that would tie in both the Hobo Jungle and the cemetery.
One of Belkaucemi's students, Matt Palan, is particularly interested in the old theater. He would like nothing more than to see the building restored to its former glory.
Palan, a fourth-year architecture student, was part of a group of students who presented their design ideas at the end of February to Foundation members, the hobo community and Britt mayor Jim Nelson.
He has taken his interest one step farther. As a project for another class, Historic Preservation, he has begun the process of getting the Chief Theater listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
Palan explained that part of the “hobo code” calls for being good to the environment, respecting community and doing things no one else wants to do. He feels that is exactly what he is doing in his attempts to restore a city landmark.
The National Registry, however, has very strict guidelines for a building to be accepted.
Palan said a building must either have architectural significance; historical ties with famous people; hold clues to the past or prehistory itself or must have significance in the overall scheme of society or within the community.
It is this fourth requirement that he is currently working on. Information must also meet the 50-year rule. “It has to be older than 50 years,” Palan said. “The stuff I need needs to be older than that. The cut-off period is 1958. We're looking at the Princess Theater and early Chief Theater past.”
Spending much of his spring break time in Britt last week talking to people and searching through the News-Tribune achieves, he is slowly piecing together a bit of Britt's history.
“Realistically, this won't get on the Registry before I leave (the school semester ends). After all the material has been gathered there is a three-month review period,” Palan explained. “Someone will have to pick this up after I leave it.”
But it is a start. And now that the ball is rolling there will be followers.
“It's unbelievable. It's a good feeling to have new ideas,” said Linda Hughes, Hobo Museum curator and Foundation treasurer. “It will come down to dollars, but if we can get on the National Registry we can go for grants.”
What Palan is particularly looking for now is peoples stories. Stories about what they did at the old theater, memories of first dates, watching westerns, being an employee or sitting up in the balcony. “Any story that shows there is a history there,” Hughes said. “We need this information.”
Please send stories and/or pictures to: Hobo Foundation, P.O. Box 143, Britt, Iowa 50423.
Story created Mar 26, 2008 - 10:12:55 CDT.
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