Historical Society

Historical Society building

The Gilbert Community Historical Society 

     Our mission is to promote the preservation of the history of Gilbert 

and surrounding area.       

          

The officers of the Gilbert Community Historical Society are President - Teri Harriman Gallahan, Vice President – Nancy Long, Secretary - Margot Eness and Treasurer - Gene Upstill.

We generally have our meetings at 4:00 pm, on the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Red Buchman Gilbert Community Center, in the back part of the Library building at 207 Main Street. We have many activities planned throughout the year. Our fundraisers include a reprinting of a couple cookbooks. One is compiled circa 1950 of recipes of the Ladies Auxiliary of V.F.W. Post #8069. The other is a reprint of a Congregational Church cookbook from the 40s. These books are for sale at our museum at 209 Main Street. We also have DVDs of our past Harvest Fest productions, Gilbert Days shirts and Gilbert round about shirts for sale at the museum. We are open on Tuesdays from 3:00 to 5:00, but we close in the winter from December until April. Please call Teri Harriman Gallahan (515-708-2808) or Nancy Long (515-290-8751) to have the museum opened during the hours we are closed. We love to give private tours.

Our museum staff has compiled a list of all the veterans from the Gilbert area. We have a veterans’ photo display in the Red Buchman Community Center. We would like to have more of our veterans’ photos for our display. If you or someone in your family is/was a veteran, please contact us with the information: Teri Harriman Gallahan (515-233-9347) or Nancy Long (515-290-8751). 

We are also looking for photos of The Gilbert Airport (yes, Gilbert used to have an airport!), The Gilbert Stock Yard and the original Veterans Board that was on Main Street. Please contact Nancy Long (515-290-8751), our research specialist if you have information or photos of any of these.

We have several displays in our museum. Currently, we have the Zennorsville area that Nancy Peterson worked so hard on; pictures of the town of Gilbert and the school many, many years ago; a display of our founding fathers; a room full of class pictures and athletic teams going way back to the 1920s and almost every Gilbert year book that was printed. Stop in and take a look!!             

Main Street of Gilbert, Iowa in black and white
colorized photo of Main St. in 1990's
Black and white image of Main St. 1800's
black and white image of old lumbermill
black and white image of Gilbert Band form early 1920's
colorized aerial image of Gilbert in 1990's