VIENNA — The Historical Society of Maries County (HSMC) hosted a steady stream of guests when it opened its museum complex for an open house last Sunday afternoon.

The museum complex off Highway 42 in Vienna consists of five buildings full of artifacts from throughout local history. Volunteers have made themselves experts on each building and its contents. They shared facts with visitors when they arrived and answered questions to the best of their knowledge.

The first building HSMC opened on the grounds was the Old Jail Museum. Maries County built the limestone jail between 1856 and 1858. The county used it until the builders of the current courthouse completed the new jail in 1942. In 1955, the old jail became a museum as part of Maries County’s centennial celebration.

The ground floor was the sheriff’s living quarters. Now, the two rooms on the floor contain a variety of displays including a collection of arrowheads and fossils from mastodons found in Maries County. The upstairs features even more artifacts, including those in the jail cell. Graffiti from prisoners long gone lines the walls of the upstairs.

HSMC member Sarah Stratman welcomed guests to the Old Jail Museum during the open house. She talked about an upcoming project the organization will undertake to repair a crack running on the north side of the building. The group first noticed the crack about a year ago, but it was a challenge to find someone willing to do the foundation work because of the building’s historical nature.

“We’re working on trying to make sure we have everything in line to preserve it as best we can but still keep the building in one piece,” she said. “It’s a tricky thing.”

HSMC hopes to have the work on the Old Jail Museum completed later this summer. Stratman said the organization will use proceeds from the book “The Cemeteries of Maries County, Mo. - A Personal History” by Gail Howard and Mozelle Hutchison and other donations to fund the project.

The second building to join the museum complex was the Felker House. The log home’s original location was only two blocks east of where it now resides. John and Amanda Anderson Felker built it in 1855. When it was in danger of destruction in 1959, HSMC made sure it stayed standing and moved it to its current spot. The house is set up to give visitors an impression of how people in the area lived in the mid-19th century.

In 1989, Maries County sold a building it owned on the block to HSMC. The organization still refers to that part of the museum as the Maries County Building. Inside it holds interior mailboxes from the old Vichy post office, furniture from the first Maries County Bank, old school desks and a display from the American Civil War.

The fourth building to join the complex was the Latham House, which HSMC references as the oldest recorded house in Vienna. Dr. Valsain Gaylove Latham and wife Nancy built the house in 1855 on a lot on Main Street. The Lathams lived in the house until 1864 and other families lived in it until 1907. After that, it became a barn, a polling location and an ice house. In 1977, the deteriorating building was relocated to Vienna City Park before finally making its way to the museum complex in 1994.

“When we were working on it, part of the wall collapsed on us on the scaffolding board,” HSMC member John Veissman said about moving the Latham House. “I had one wall in each arm as the board kept going (lower). That’s the way to break both arms. They got it shored up before I broke the board I was standing on.”

Although the home belonged to the Lathams, many of the artifacts inside belonged to Dr. William Bowles, who operated a medical practice in Lanes Prairie. The second-story exterior of the Latham House holds the original waiting bench for Bowles’s patients.

“We couldn’t even get (the bench) in this building,” HSMC member Sharon Wulff said at the Latham House. “We got some high school kids to take it off the back of a truck or trailer, lift it up over the banister and into the door up there and bring it into the room upstairs. Then, it went back against the wall. There are too many crooks and turns up there, and it’s so long.”

The last building at the complex, the Hollenbeck House, also contains some of Dr. Bowles’s personal items. The bedroom is set up with his bedroom furniture, including a chair from his home. On the night that Bowles died in 1903, he set his coat on the chair and it has rested there ever since.

The Hollenbeck family donated the building in 2005 in honor of Homer and Mary Lee Hollenbeck in addition to the items belonging to Bowles, the house also hosts artifacts that belonged to local doctors Curtman, Schoenhal and Howard and a collection of military uniforms from World War II and the Korean War that belonged to local veterans George Stratman; Ralph Jones; Marvin Helms; Willard E. Finn; Richard James, Jr.; George William Redel and Norman James. The house also contains a Maries County Sheriff’s uniform that belonged to Roy Bassett, who died in the line of duty in 1994.

“If my generation doesn’t save this then it’s gone,” Baxter said while looking over artifacts in the Hollenbeck House. “A lot of it’s already gone -- the memories. That’s what’s important.”

One memory shared by someone at the Hollenbeck House on Sunday was that of a dress displayed on a rack alongside the military uniforms. Virginia Carroll, of Vienna, came to the museum complex to socialize. She shared that she was very thankful she could get in her car and go where she needed to at 91 years old. As people entered the house, she would share the story of the dress she wore for the Maries County centennial celebration in 1955 and point it out along with a picture of her wearing the dress and another photo of her late husband Jesse.

Although HSMC only opens the museum complex a few times each year, the organization remains active in the community. The organization recently passed 300 members after a few new sign-ups at the open house Members receive a quarterly newsletter featuring articles researched and written by the organization’s members. The research room in the courthouse basement is also open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays. Anyone interested in learning more about HSMC can follow the Historical Society of Maries County Facebook page or email hsmc1855@gmail.com.