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ITM launches 2009 capital campaingn

Reprinted courtesy of The Grinnell-Herald Register January 29, 2009

Grinnellians will soon have an opportunity to become a part of a unique project that will draw people from around Iowa and across the nation to the city of Grinnell, according to Charles Brooke, executive director of the Iowa Transportation Museum (ITM).

Brooke said that the ITM Board, a statewide non-profit organization, announced a 12-month, public capital campaign beginning Jan. 1. A campaign kick-off event in Grinnell, featuring the first round of inductees in the Transportation Heroes Center, will occur in early spring of this year. The financial goal for the local campaign is $2 million, and one-half of this goal has already been pledged by an anonymous donor, Brooke reported.

The specific goal of the 2009 local campaign is to complete Phase 1 of the $25 million project. Phase 1 will restore the Administration Building with East Building, and restore a portion of the lower level of the museum. To date the ITM Board has obtained $2.1 million in federal and state matching grants. Private donors and other groups have pledged $1.9 million over the next ten years.

“The site of the Iowa Transportation Museum is especially appropriate in Grinnell because of the historic importance of the Spaulding Manufacturing Company and the Grinnell community,” Brooke said. “Grinnell has a rich and storied history in railroads, aviation, automobiles, and various horse-drawn methods of transportation.”

The first of the four Spaulding buildings housed a modest blacksmiths hop in 1876 owned by Henry W. Spaulding. By 1910, Spaulding and his two sons employed 400 people who produced carriages, buggies and wagons. In 1910, the buildings were modified to produce cars and trucks.

The Spaulding site occupies a full city block between Third and Fourth Avenues, and the buildings contain an aggregate 125,000 square feet of space. All the buildings are included on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Only one product of the Spaulding Company still remains: a 1913 Model 40 automobile, currently being restored funded by grants from the Iowa State Historical Society and Grinnell College.

The entire project will be a special value to educators at every level, young people considering careers in transportation, historians and engineering scholars.

Supporters have several methods available to them to make gifts to this project including membership as a “Founding Friend” at $100 per year, renewable annually; multi-year pledges; estate planning inclusion; and gifts of appreciated stock. All gifts are qualified as tax-deductible to the full extent permitted by law.

Brooke and his staff members are eager to provide additional information and to answer questions about the project. Please call Brooke at 641-236-9860 or visit the ITM website at iowatransportationmuseum.org.