Individuals looking for some historical facts about the city of Waterville, its businesses, and some of its residents, can now read about them outside the Waterville City Hall.
The Waterville Artists and Historic Waterville Businesses exhibit is starting to take shape, with six beautiful displays currently erected.
According to Jeff Jarvis, a partnership was formed with the Le Sueur County Historical Society Board.
“They were very supportive by opening up the archives to share photography. Sally Olson, LCHS genealogist in particular was invaluable as she did lots of digging to get information for the project,” Jarvis, who has spearheaded the project, said. “Another excellent source of information was the Waterville newspaper. A big thank you to them for making their newspaper archives available.”
The idea behind an outdoor history exhibit was to create a set of mural panels for Waterville as an open air attraction to promote the town’s history. The history panels would be highly-visible and easily-accessible for residents and visitors to learn the rich history of Waterville.
The exhibit would allow Sakatah trail users or anyone the chance to learn about the city's origins, its people, and historic sites. In addition, the panels could have imprinted website URLs and/or QR codes to engage viewers with smart phones to access even more city information and services. More QR codes and URLs will be added in the future.
The stories are carefully written for historical accuracy, proofed, and merged with a series of appropriate photography to engage the visitor. The graphic designs are then printed on exterior vinyl, which in turn were mounted on aluminum composite panels. These panels are now being installed over the City Hall building's windows.
History of Waterville displayed at City Hall
