By Shana Thornton
The Customs House Museum & Cultural Center extends beyond the walls of the museum, located at the corner of South Second Street and Commerce Street in downtown Clarksville. Not only will you find the Customs House Museum’s Collection out in the community at key locations, but most importantly, you can meet our staff of the Customs House Museum out and about, serving the Montgomery County community at all kinds of educational and historical events.
Community Events
The Customs House Museum’s staff are proud to serve the Clarksville community and provide arts, history, and culture experiences at various events throughout the county.
The Customs House Museum Lead Visitor Services Associate, Kim Raines, and Facilities Manager, Eric Shanley, at the Crow Recreation Center’s Mayor Summer Night Lights. Photo Courtesy of Clarksville Parks & Recreation.
Mayor’s Summer Night Lights are always a fun time each Tuesday evening of the summer months, and the museum participates in all of them. The museum staff brings games as well as an art and/or craft for visitors to complete. The staff enjoys these times when we mix and mingle with the community at different parks.
Above Left: Customs House Museum’s Graphic designer, Summer Lucio, Copperton, and Kathleen Silva, Education Associate, at the Mayor’s Summer Night Lights. Photo Courtesy of Summer Lucio. Above Center: Lead Visitor Services Associate, Kim Raines, at Crow Recreation Center. Photo Courtesy of Clarksville Parks and Recreation. Above Right: Managing Editor of Second & Commerce, Shana Thornton, at Dixon Park. Photo Courtesy of Terry Morris.
Visitor Services Lead Associate, Kim Raines, and Visitor Services Manager, Laura Cagaoan, with the Spirit Award for Mayor’s Summer Night Lights. Photo Courtesy of Summer Lucio.
The Customs House Museum won a perfect attendance award, 2025 Spirit Award, for Mayor’s Summer Night Lights this year.
The Summer Youth Program is hosted annually by Clarksville Parks and Recreation Dept and offers daily age-appropriate games, sports activities, arts and crafts, and other enrichment activities. The Customs House Museum’s Education team, Stephanie Stafford and Kathleen Silva, stopped by eight of the locations again this summer to bring the museum’s Storytime and Craft to the camps. The Customs House Museum’s project this year brought together history and art through quilts, inspired by the Gee’s Bends Quilts. Children learned about quilts, the process of quilting, and had an opportunity to collaborate on a group quilt, each creating their own quilt square, using some of the quilting skills they learned.
Curator of Education, Stephanie Stafford, and Education Associate, Kathleen Silva, out at the Summer Youth Program through Clarksville Parks & Recreation Dept. All images courtesy of Clarksville Parks & Recreation.
Collections in the Community
The Customs House Museum is a collecting museum, which means that we have a collection of unique and special items, artifacts, and artworks from Clarksville and Montgomery County history. In fact, the museum boasts more than 22,000 items in the collection. Many of these items and artworks were donated by Clarksville citizens over the years. Some items from the Customs House Museum’s collection are displayed regularly at the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library and the Montgomery County Historic Courthouse. These items are changed throughout the year by the Curator of Collections, Matthew Sarnelli. Currently, the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library features items related to hair care and shaving.
The Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library currently contains a display case on the second floor with items related to shaving and hair care from the Customs House Museum’s Collection.
The Montgomery County Historic Courthouse shares many stories from the Customs House Museum’s collection, including the Courthouse Time Capsule that was buried in the cornerstone of the courthouse in 1879, and uncovered by the 1999 tornado. These display cases are located in the basement of the courthouse and include items that Clarksville’s citizens put into the time capsule such as money, coins, newspapers, historical lists, and more.
Courthouse Time Capsule Photos by Summer Lucio.
In the Courthouse Chambers where the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meets, two quilts are displayed from the Customs House Museum collection as well. A gift of the first Montgomery County Historian, Ursula Beach, the Log Cabin Quilt includes this description: “In 1863, Log Cabin quilts became very popular to help raise funds for the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was thought to be an honor of Abraham Lincoln, who grew up in a log cabin. Quilts continued to be very popular as our nation was nearing the year of its centennial in 1876.”
The second quilt at the courthouse and pictured below is called “New York Beauty” and is embroidered with S. J. McGowen/January 1857. Sarah Jane McGowen lived in Montgomery County. The quilt was gifted to the Customs House Museum by Julia B. Magee.
Courthouse Quilt Photos by Summer Lucio.
The Customs House Museum & Cultural Center is proud to serve the citizens of Clarksville-Montgomery County, and we hope to meet you out at community events in the future.
References:
Featured Image: Curator of Education, Stephanie Stafford, and Education Associate, Kathleen Silva, out at the Summer Youth Program through Clarksville Parks & Recreation Dept. Image courtesy of Clarksville Parks & Recreation.
Clarksville Parks and Recreation
Montgomery County Historic Courthouse
Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library
Shana Thornton is the Managing Editor of Second & Commerce, the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center’s arts, history, and culture magazine. She is an author and publisher, Founder of the Clarksville-Montgomery County African American Legacy Trail, and the Montgomery County Deputy Historian.