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The following piece was submitted to the Winchester Sun by Rosemary Campbell, a volunteer with the Bluegrass Heritage Museum who sits on its Board of Directors and serves as the Chair of Historical Publications. 

Over 80 people gathered on the patio of the Bluegrass Heritage Museum recently to cap off a year’s long celebration of its 20th anniversary.

Local officials, past and present board members, and many friends and members of the Museum were there to show appreciation for what one speaker described as “an anchor of downtown Winchester.”

After a welcome by Museum director Sandy Stults, current board president Gardner Wagers introduced speakers who were all closely involved in the early planning and renovating stages.

Dodd Dixon, former Mayor of Winchester and founding museum board chairman described the years-long process of dreaming, planning, and sheer hard work involved in getting the Museum up and running. He also offered some possible goals for the future, including pursuing affiliation with the Smithsonian Institute as well as helping develop historical aspects of Depot Street. “Thank you for keeping this dream alive,” he concluded.

Nancy Turner, currently the Assistant Director of Kentucky Tourism, served as the Museum’s first director. She spoke especially about the educational impact the Museum has had through the years, for the general public as well as the thousands of schoolchildren who have visited.

“Community is a group of people who have a common passion and they bring that passion to life….What the Museum does here in terms of education is so important. What you’re doing here matters.”

Founding board member Kevin Osbourn recalled being on a walk years ago and encountering Wallace Guerrant, whose family had run the Guerrant Mission Clinic and Hospital.

At that time, the planning committee was still casting about for a possible site for a museum.

Almost on a whim, Mr. Osbourn asked Mr. Guerrant if the family would consider giving the building to the community for that purpose. Initially reluctant, Wallace called the next day to say yes. “You never know what can happen,” Kevin said. “In my life, I’ve seen that great things start with a vision….Thank you all for the vision, because look what happened.”

Former Mayor Ed Burtner was also a founding member of the museum board. He spoke of the advocates and the “worker bees” who made the Museum a reality. He especially acknowledged the late Winchester Sun editor Bill Blakeman, who wrote a column every month advocating for a community museum. “There was so much history and heritage in this community that needed to be captured.” Mr. Burtner also called out the amazing number of volunteers who would show up to scrape, remove tile, and just do a tremendous amount of physical work to help renovate the building.

Mr. Burtner also recognized the city of Winchester for the commitment that it has made continually over many years to financially support the Museum. “Not many communities have this.”

In his conclusion, Mr. Burtner reflected that, “Our nation is struggling. We need to capture all of our history.” The Museum is “a place for memory, for discourse, for culture and rest and repose.”