The Morton Museum’s 10th anniversary reception on Thursday, August 11 was a great success, with 115 people showing up to celebrate the museum’s first decade of preserving Town history. Museum staff were ready with two new exhibitions and a tour of the building’s architectural features. 

Guests mingled, snacked and sampled the Morton Museum “mocktail” while viewing ‘On a Mission’ 10 Years of Preserving Collierville History. This history of how the museum came to be will be on display through November 18, 2022, and consists of building plans and newspaper articles documenting the life and use of the white church at the corner of Poplar and Main.  

Here are the highlights: 

• 1873 – Irby, M.A. Leake, and Virginius Leake sell land to bishops of the Christian Church of Collierville 
• 1906 – Major renovations to the structure, including the addition of Gothic Revival stained-glass, decorative carpentry, a bell tower, and entrances on Poplar Ave./N. Main 
• 1950s – Minor renovations, including the addition of classrooms to the back of the building and updates to the parsonage (no longer standing) 
• 1992 – Collierville Christian Church congregation vacates the building 
• 1993 – White Church Antiques opens 
• 1999 – Seasons at the White Church restaurant opens 
• Unknown date – White church property is vacated and left abandoned 
• 2007 – Morgan Morton purchases the property with the intention of donating it to the Town of Collierville as a museum to honor his late mother 
• 2008 – Property officially donated; Renovations begin 
• 2010 – Town of Collierville hosts an open house to the public so they may see the renovations to the church
• 2012 – The Morton Museum opens to the public 

What has happened inside the white stucco walls since the Morton Museum opened to the public? Quite a lot. The museum’s Lunch and Learn series has hosted speakers on numerous topics like creating a photographic record of daily life; life in the Victorian garden; and managing Collierville’s historic Magnolia Cemetery. There are weekly Story Times for kids, Spotlight Saturdays, and Summer Workshops for adults and youth. The Friends of the Morton Museum non-profit group assists in making special exhibitions, events, and programs possible through funding and volunteer support. 

The second new exhibition in the museum is a project in partnership with the Lucius E. and Elsie C. Burch Library, and is one that will provide memories for the next milestone anniversary of the museum.  Picturing Collierville mirrors the title of the Paul Madison Wilson collection of photos on display in the Town Hall lobby and in other buildings around town. The new exhibit mirrors the purpose of the older one as well, in depicting life in Collierville as it is in a certain point in time. These photos will be saved by the library and museum as resources for future generations.  

The timeline above notes instances, in 1993 and 1999, when the building at 196 N. Main was used as a retail establishment. The names given to both these businesses included “white church”, and that’s generally how people who don’t know what’s inside identify the building.  At the 10th anniversary reception, Visitor Services Coordinator Jamie Boelter led a tour around the outside of the building where she gave the details of its design and pointed out places where it had been altered to fit what was coming next in its history.  Like so many buildings in the Town Square, the white church on the corner has served the community in numerous ways. As a museum, the possibilities are endless in how it can serve the Collierville of the future, and   Director Kate Renner is encouraged by the reception’s turnout. 

“It was wonderful to see so many community members and leaders gather together at the Museum in celebration of this incredible milestone – a decade of preserving and interpreting Collierville history.”