Souders Historical Museum, History museum in Kansas, US
Souders Historical Museum is a history museum near Cheney, Kansas, set on roughly 10 acres where a series of buildings recreate a small town from the late 1800s and early 1900s. The site includes a one-room schoolhouse, a chapel, two train depots, a livery stable, a print shop, a jail, and a firehouse, some of which are original structures moved from nearby locations.
Floyd and Norma Souders began building the museum after they stopped running The Cheney Sentinel newspaper in 1971, using the land of their farm to bring together buildings and objects from the area. Two of the train depots on the site, originally built in 1884, were moved here in 1984, and a livery stable was added as recently as 2014.
The recreated Main Street shows a general store, a post office, a bank, and a barber shop, all furnished with objects from the past. Walking through it gives a sense of how people ran daily errands and did business in a small Kansas town a century ago.
The museum sits about half a mile (800 m) southwest of Cheney on MacArthur Road and is open by appointment, so it is worth calling ahead before you go. In summer, the site opens on one set day per week, and groups can arrange guided tours.
Floyd Souders was one of the founders of the Sedgwick County Fair, and the museum dedicates an entire building to memorabilia from that fair. The grounds can also be rented for outdoor weddings, which makes the site unusual for a history museum.
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