SHELBY — The town of Shelby has a brand new historic website.
The Shelby Bicycle Museum held a dedication ceremony Thursday night on the Shelby Justice Middle on Mack Avenue to introduce the brand new museum to the general public.
Members of The Shelby Cycle Historic Society, a bunch of individuals devoted to gathering and preserving the reminiscence of the businesses that comprised a significant a part of Shelby’s important supply of commerce within the twentieth century, are answerable for pushing ahead with the museum. The committee consists of 30 members who stay wherever from Shelby, Ohio, to Texas to California.
Shelby is thought for having a wealthy historical past of bicycle manufacturing. The present location of the Shelby Bicycle Museum was once the grounds of the unique Shelby Cycle Manufacturing facility and this 12 months marks the one centesimal anniversary of the beginning of the Shelby Cycle Body Builders, which went on to grew to become the Shelby Cycle Firm.
“I feel it was about three or 4 years in the past, Stan Cain and Lance Combs began speaking about placing just a few bikes up on the partitions to honor the bicycle business that was there,” stated Christina Drain, president and founding father of the Shelby Cycle Historic Society.
$29,000 grant from Ohio Humanities Council
The Shelby Cycle Historic Society obtained a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council to create the interactive museum within the Shelby Justice Middle. They had been awarded a $29,000 grant that included greater than $10,000 of volunteer analysis time and $5,000 to buy a show case, bicycle racks, and interpretive panels and murals.
The thought got here from Cain, a Shelby bicycle collector, and Combs, the Shelby Police Chief, who each envisioned a bicycle museum which might be open anytime for households to deliver kids and out-of-town visitors.
“It isn’t simply bicycles however there have been a number of industries that had been in that manufacturing unit earlier than it grew to become the Shelby Cycle Manufacturing facility,” stated Drain. “So, we’re honoring these industries.”
Among the these industries had been the Shelby Electrical Firm, which made lightbulbs and had been on show within the museum. Different industries that was once stationed in Shelby had been the Shelby Metal Tube Firm, Shelby Cycle Manufacturing Firm, Chicago Deal with Bar Firm, and the Mack Ave Industries, which was a corn husker producer.
A singular facet of the museum is that there’s a giant mural on the wall of Clarence “Whippet” Wagner, who in 1927 traveled on his Shelby Whippet racing bike 3,169 miles from Newport Seaside to Atlantic Metropolis in 20 days and 17 hours, breaking his personal transcontinental report. He averaged about 160 miles in 14 hours per day, with no mechanical points alongside the best way.
Historic bicycle discovered within the Dallas space
Tim Newmeyer discovered Wagner’s bike in Texas within the Dallas space. He was current on the dedication with the bike.
“I have been in possession of it for 10 years now,” stated Newmeyer. “I discovered it and stuck it up.”
“There’s a lot data on these murals,” stated Drain. “Each time somebody is available in they are going to see one thing that they missed earlier than. I feel that is the distinctive factor about it. It isn’t a standard museum by any stretch of the creativeness however it’s telling our historical past. There have been many companies that began in Shelby and numerous buyers, entrepreneurs and folks prepared to place cash within the companies.”
The Shelby Cycle Historic Society may even host an Open Home from 10 a.m. to three p.m. Saturday, July 9, on the museum.
Twitter: @JamesSimpsonII
https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/information/2022/07/08/shelby-bicycle-museum-features-mansfield-bike-history/7831878001/
