![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sweethomenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Museum-3.jpg\")
<\/a>Tony Hayden presents photos of his parents, Kathryn and R.M. Hayden, during a presentation by the Lebanon Museum Foundation in May 2019.<\/p>\nRecently, Scroggin\u2019s Mill Rural Heritage gifted the foundation a $13,822 gift following the sale of Scroggin\u2019s Mill and dissolution of the organization, which planned to turn Scroggin\u2019s Mill into a museum, primarily for logging, lumbering and farming equipment.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s museum board issued a press release stating \u201cthe gift from Scroggin\u2019s Mill Rural Heritage brings the museum closer to finding a home for its collection and opening the doors to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Paul Aziz, president of the Lebanon Museum Foundation, the financial gift raises their cash stash to just over $25,000 toward a $250,000 goal intended to secure a safe building for a local museum.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the recent donation to the foundation, we are in a better position to be able to look at options,\u201d Aziz said.<\/p>\n
And they are open to \u201call options,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Lebanon Museum Foundation was born through Aziz, who, as mayor at the time, initiated the move to bring a museum to Lebanon after community input for the Lebanon 2040 Vision in 2015 revealed a strong interest in preserving Lebanon\u2019s history.<\/p>\n But this hasn\u2019t been the first time interested parties attempted to give Lebanon a museum. Several different efforts have come and faded since the 1970s, including Scroggin\u2019s Mill Rural Heritage.<\/p>\n According to Pete and Jan Boucot, founders of Scroggin\u2019s Mill, the nonprofit had to end its efforts due to a lack of support to get it opened. The overall scope would have cost a lot, as fixing the roof alone would have cost upwards of $200,000.<\/p>\n The City of Lebanon had donated $500 toward fencing, but \u201cvery few people\u201d showed interest in continued support.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a number of years it just made sense to us to shutter our organization and donate the money to the museum and the Lebanon Genealogical Society,\u201d Pete Boucot said.<\/p>\n Albany & Eastern Railroad purchased the Scroggin\u2019s Mill property. Boucot told The New Era his understanding is that the new owner wants to protect the historical building and is considering using it as a train museum.<\/p>\n In 2018, an ad hoc committee for the city was formed, which created the basis of the Lebanon Museum Foundation. Since then, the museum board has toured local museums, collected hundreds of items and continues to raise money for its future home.<\/p>\n To kickstart their efforts, the City of Lebanon seeded the foundation $10,000, and a former Lebanon museum effort donated its own collection. Since then, other collections have been acquired, including, according to curator Thonni Morikawa, \u201can incredible collection of historical phones\u201d from someone who worked 40 years at the original telephone company in Lebanon, WWI and WWII uniforms (one of which was donated by Frank Groves), Bohle Creamery items donated by Dorothy Page from her family\u2019s Lebanon Creamery Company, and photographic collections from five different donors.<\/p>\n There are also several collections \u201con hold\u201d by the donors themselves until a big enough space can be found to house them.<\/p>\n Without a building, many of the collections remain hidden from public view in a temperature-controlled storage locker.<\/p>\n \u201cIt bothers my curatorial senses to have everything shoved in a storage unit,\u201d Morikawa said.<\/p>\n<\/a>Historian and archaeologist Tony Farque shared about the Calapooia tribes during a special kickoff presentation in October 2018 hosted by the Lebanon Museum Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/a>A visitor signs the guestbook while touring the historic Scroggin\u2019s Mill in 2016.<\/p>\n<\/a>Women shared information about four century-old women\u2019s clubs in Lebanon during a special presentation hosted by the Lebanon Museum Foundation in October 2022.<\/p>\n