Varied collections are housed in this 7,000 square foot building in Heritage Park. The foyer houses the 1917 Staples Jewelry neon sign and an extensive collection of Lamar County postcards dating from the early 1900’s.
The restored façade of the home of the late Judge Jim Noble Thompson leads to the core of the museum which has a military room with artifacts dating from the Texas Revolution to the recent war in the Gulf. Period uniforms, weapons and information on Camp Maxey (WWII) are also displayed.
The fire room deals exclusively with the Great Fire of 1916, which destroyed 70 percent of the city with a panorama of the city in 1914 just before the fire. There are rooms of period furniture from the Swaim family c.1920. The Buckner Room collection includes the sole remaining artifacts from the Buckner Orphans Home in Dallas which originated in Paris in 1877. There is a restored Sunday School classroom, the baptistry painting and the doors and chandelier from the main chapel.
In separate rooms are exhibits ranging from the Paris Police Department, the tornado of 1982, and an African American room featuring history of Deputy U.S. Marshall Bass Reeves, and history of slavery in Lamar County, including newspaper articles and photos. This room was compiled by Thelma Dangerfield and the late Marva Jo.
The third section offers the rural life area, with a log house built by the Biard Family in 1856, model kitchens, blacksmith shop, iron lung, medical equipment and exhibits on the hay and cotton industries. A curing vat for curing meats from the Wright plantation is present, as are artifacts from the five railroads that crisscrossed Paris in 1912. Numerous smaller exhibits are found throughout the building.
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