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Museum History
The House of David
Museum was established in April 1997 in the
little town of Riverside, Michigan. Feeling
the need to save this wonderful history that was
slowly slipping away, Chris Siriano made a
decision to do whatever he could to save the story
of the House of David by compiling artifacts, baseball
memorabilia, posters, photos, wooden souvenirs,
and artwork from the House of David times, and
place them on exhibit for all others to see
and learn about.
Siriano met with
several House of David members day after
day, for sometimes hours at a time, trying to
learn their story directly from their mouths,
listening to their memories of the amusement park,
baseball teams, the faith, their personal lives,
and so on. After over a year of
meetings, and lots of enthusiasm, Siriano set out
to devote his time to securing this great
piece of history for future generations
here in S.W. Michigan.
Upon asking
the House of David members if they approved of
this "Museum" idea, they at first had
reservations, simply because they had so many
times been taken advantage of, lied to, or ridiculed,
they were basically untrusting of the
general public to represent them in a museum.
So at first, the answer was "You
can set up a building and put House of David items
in it, but only on the inside of the building can
you put the name "House of David",
similar to what the Benton Harbor Library has
called "The House of David Room".
And so it started
in a room of an old antique shop, calling the room
the "House of David Room", and slowly
more and more artifacts were acquired, more
and more guests came to learn, and slowly the
House of David people themselves came out to see
what was going on. Sometimes one
of their members would visit nearly every
day. Sometimes they would be the ones
telling their stories to the guests, and
slowly the level of trust was established, and
eventually they approved calling it
"House of David Museum", and even
starting helping in the search for memorabilia.
In the fall of 1997
Siriano held the
very first House of David Baseball Reunion,
and for the first time in over 60 years many of
the players were able to see each other
again, reminisce about their playing days,
and take photos in front of a crowded room full of
excited onlookers. Several medias were
present, including Channel 16 News, The South
Bend Tribune, The Herald Palladium, and a local
radio station. From this day on, the
House of David Museum had set the precedence that
this wonderful history was being saved.
The museum has grown and
grown, forcing several moves to larger facilities,
and eventually in 2004 a brand new facility was
built to house the largest House of David
collection in the world. The building is
over 4000 sq. ft. and houses one of
the first House of David Steam Engine Trains,
hundreds of pieces of their famous pearlized
ivory artwork, thousands of original
photographs, baseball and basketball
uniforms, posters, broadsides, and literally
thousands of pieces of their wonderful history. |
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