Construction is underway on the new location for the World War II History Center.
The museum board took over their new location, at 119 W. Central, on Feb. 1, providing a storefront and more permanent location for the museum.

After signing the lease, volunteers began tearing down and building new portions of the facility.

“Our intent is to make this look as professional as possible,” said Allen Cooley, founder and president of the history center foundation. “We want to provide an educational tool. Our purpose is to teach people about the biggest conflict in human history which we can’t afford to repeat.”

The entryway of the building will house rotating exhibits, as well as the tribute gallery which will feature a flat screen television to display the veterans names. This will be visible from outside.

The next area will be the gift shop.

“We’ll be one of few patriotic-line gift shops in the area,” Cooley said.

The facility also will include a room for a research library on WWII.

“We’re hoping we can appeal to area high school and college students doing research papers,” he said.

Walking farther back in the building, the next feature will be the start of some exhibits, as well as the office space.

Yet farther back will be more exhibits in exhibit room A, which will include the permanent exhibit on the walls with mobile exhibits in the middle of the room that can be moved. This room also will be their theater and they plan to show WWII movies once a month in there.

“It will just kind of be a unique thing we can offer,” he said.

Behind that area will be exhibit room B, which will include more exhibits. There also will be storage areas upstairs for items.

“This will by no means be our permanent home,” he said. They have plans to build a much larger facility in the future. “Our intent was to have a place for as long as we need and provide a sample of all we will have [in our larger building].”

They hope to have the building open by July, but that will require a lot of work from volunteers.

One thing they are in need of are volunteers who know how to do framework, who can work on weekdays.

“It ought to speed up once summer rolls around,” Cooley said.

To help in the renovation of the new site, the foundation received an $18,000 grant from the K.T. Wiedemann Foundation of Wichita. An initial fundraising goal of $75,000 was set to cover the costs of renovation and the eventual purchase of the building.

Fundraising began on Feb. 1 and prior to the successful grant application, the foundation had already raised more than $9,000 by mid-April. The $18,000 grant completes phase one of the fundraising campaign. Other contributors to the campaign include local philanthropist and WWII veteran Cliff Stone; Wanda and Keith Sanborn, both WWII Navy veterans from Wichita; Ted Dankert of El Dorado; and Sen. Robert J. Dole of Washington, D.C.

The grant puts the foundation over three months ahead of schedule regarding fundraising.

A grand opening is planned for the history center as part of the El Dorado Celebration of Freedom Committee’s annual Veteran’s Day Parade event on Nov. 8.

Anyone interested in contributing to the center or volunteering to work, can call the center at 322-8753 or e-mail wwiihistorycenter@att.net. Contributions are tax deductible within the limits of prescribed law.