St. Paul Museum is a portal into antiquity in Decatur County

It’s an interesting little gathering of country streets, turning this way and that at angles seemingly odd to the wandering tourist. Just a quiet, provincial little town like Granny used to live in.

It’s a neatly kept collection of older buildings and country homes with a few small businesses, a post office, a grocery store, and a “main drag.” There’s not a whole lot going on here in comparison to the usual hubbub of the city life to which most are accustomed, but there’s a feeling here. 

A feeling one gets when they take a walk through the memories of childhood.

A feeling of comfort, warmth and the security of “let’s sit on the front porch in the evening and watch the sun go down while the neighborhood kids play tag in the street.”

And downtown, on the corner of Webster and Franklin, there’s a restored red brick building that houses a wealth of history and memories. This is a building full of things that have been well loved and well-studied. And waiting here is one of the most knowledgeable little ladies one could ever hope to meet.

Her name is Gladys Pike and she’s the curator of this place, the St. Paul Museum.

And she has many stories to tell.

“Come on in” she says. “Hope you have a few minutes. There’s a lot here to see. And don’t forget to sign the register so we can remember you were here!” she says as she begins the tour.

“Over here, I put this kitchen in so the kids could see what an old-fashioned kitchen looks like. We even put in an ice box, with vegetables and milk so they could see how their great-grandmothers kept their food cold,” Gladys says pointing to the antique refrigerator. “We’d follow the ice cart around as kids so we could get a piece of ice.”

She points to a picture on the wall… “and that’s my husband’s grandfather. He used to drive the ice-cart.”

As she walks around the ‘kitchen’ she points to different items.

“This is a World War II table. The ladies would sit at this table at the Catholic hall and makes things to send to the boys in the war.”

She points to an ironing board with three antique irons.

“This is what men do. They invent things for us, and they’re very good at it,” she chuckles. “This iron was gas powered...I think it was kerosene. You put the kerosene in here and the water in here and you light it here.”

“And this is an old cradle washer. And this is an old ‘Sellers’ cabinet. There were ‘Hoosiers’ cabinets and then there were ‘Sellers’ cabinets. They held everything in the kitchen,” she explained as she pulled out the table top hidden in the cabinet.

She walks toward the window and gestures toward the old vehicle parked in the center of the room.

“Now, this is a 1927 Ford. And the kids love it because…see how the windows go up and down…they did that with a leather strap. It’s amazing that they just raised and lowered the window and buttoned it up with a leather strap.”

The personalized tour continues in the next room.

“This is a score board from the old Noble township school, and it belongs to Adrian Scripture, the president of the St. Paul Heritage Foundation. When he got it, it was an old piece of junk, but he remembered what it looked like, so he had it redone. And these are some of his things from when he went to school there. The school was built in 1931 I think. The scoreboard was put in there for their basketball games.”

“Now this building was originally a Model-T dealership. It was originally built for the Red Men. That was an old fraternity started in 1834. They met in the top floor, and the bottom floor became a dealership,” Pike explained.

“And then after that,” she said, pointing to a large wall mounted photo labeled ‘Bee Bo’s ‘ Diner, “it became many things. It was a grocery store, and then Be Bo’s came in in the ‘60s. It has been a restaurant, it was a grocery…it was even a meat market.”

She walked by a large white cherub-like sculpture with a multi-faced box on its head.

“Now in 1854, there were several church groups, but no actual church buildings. So John Paul, St. Paul’s founder, gave some land to the Catholics and some to the Protestants. And this was the Catholic Church’s baptismal font. It’s cast iron and heavy, and was given to us by John Lewis. It’s been sand-blasted and it’s just a beautiful piece.”

“Now, it’s not called St. Paul because it’s a Catholic town…people get that mixed up. It was named after John Paul who settled it. And in 1854, when the railroad went through they were naming towns with ‘saint’ like ‘St. Morris’ and ‘St. Leon’ and ‘Saint Omer.’ It was called ‘Paultown,’ and they just threw a ‘saint’ in there and called it ‘St. Paul,’” she explained.

She walked over to an antique drawered cabinet.

“I want you to see these old pictures. Bob Mitchell and I used to collect photos in this old cabinet, but when he passed away…I’ve been categorizing these old pictures for years…there’s so many. I had my son blow up several of them and had them mounted on the wall like that,” she says, pointing to the wall.

“This is a picture of the old quarry,” she says, pointing to one of the pictures. “It’s amazing, but so many of the houses and buildings around here were built with stone from that quarry. And the stone is so heavy. They used it in a lot of the downtown and in the old streets, too,” Pike says.

“And see that old building over there?” she asks, pointing out the window and down the street. “That’s the old bank. It was built with stone from the quarry as well until the Bailey building burnt in 1916. And then they rebuilt it with brick,” she finished.

Continuing her tour and pointing at another picture on the wall, she said “And this house was the ‘St. Paul’ house after they first built it. Then they tore a big hunk of it out and re-bricked it.”

She pointed to another picture.

“See this cigar? They put opium in the cigars then. And they put cocaine in Coke, too, so they were having a good time!” she said laughing.

Pike continues to wander around the room, pointing at items and explaining their history. It is obvious she had given this tour several times in her life, and has loved every single opportunity to share every new fact she remembers.

Members of the St. Paul Heritage Foundation are working to preserve the older buildings and roadways in St. Paul, and Pike is a very active member.

She comments,“there were so many buildings that have been torn down, and you just can’t keep doing that or you won’t have a town. My feeling is to save the buildings so that people have something to come see. Americana is coming back, and we want to have something to show them.”

She reaches the end of her tour.

“I know I can bore you, but this is my town. I want to save it to show people what it was like back when it was busy.”

Gladys Pike, curator of the St. Paul Museum, is available from 1 to 4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, or by appointment.

The museum is at 112 Webster St. and is well worth the short drive to explore.