Driving down Porter Avenue in Chesterton, you might see an old-fashioned mansion with the middle school behind it and a neighborhood of houses across the street. Against those surroundings, the brick mansion may seem out of place, which is funny considering that it was there long before any of the surrounding buildings were constructed.
Built in 1885, Brown Mansion has been a number of things over its 128 years. Since 2005, it has been the site of the Westchester Township History Museum. And, since 2011, that museum has been curated by Serena Sutliff. And just like the artifacts she keeps, hers is an interesting story.
Sutliff grew up in Dyer and learned an appreciation for history from both of her grandparents.
“Both of my grandparents were great storytellers. On my dad’s side, my grandpa was a farmer in Arkansas during the Great Depression. On my mother’s side, my grandfather served in World War II. Back then I had no idea I would make history my career, I just thought they had terrific stories,” Sutliff said
In Austin, Texas Sutliff earned degrees in history and in English from Concordia University. After she graduated in 2001, she taught middle school and high school in Plano for a number of years until moving to Hickory, North Carolina to continue teaching. But after a few more years, Sutliff realized the teaching profession was changing and she didn’t like where it was going. She didn’t want to give up working with history though, so she looked for a way to keep involved with what she loved.
“From there, I enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to get my master’s degree in history. As part of the program, I had to do an internship at a museum. The most economical way for me to do that was to be near my parent’s house in Indiana. I contacted the Westchester Township History Museum but there was a problem: they didn’t have an internship program. Working together, we created one so that I could get my requirement while helping them. So the summer of 2010 I spent as an intern, assisting with research, and managing collections,” Sutliff said.
After that she returned to North Carolina to complete the master’s program and graduated in 2011.
Sutliff recounted, “At the time the museum industry—like a lot of others—still had some severe employment issues. I returned to the Westchester Township History Museum as a volunteer and worked on digitization.”
Later in 2011, Jane Walsh-Brown, who founded the museum in 1998 in its original location, decided it was time to retire. Sutliff was hired as the new curator.
“People kept telling me that I had big shoes to fill when I came in. My response was to say, ‘I’m not trying to replace her. She started this museum, she will always have a place in this museum’s history that simply can’t be replaced. I’m just continuing her work,’” Sutliff said.
Sutliff’s job is to tell the story of Westchester Township: from shifting glaciers, Indians, settlers, industrialization, and now integration into a globally-connected society. The way she does that is by telling individual stories. But her main theme throughout is community.
“Without living in the past, we still need to learn from it. It’s in the individual stories of people and of the artifacts that we can find out what made Chesterton, Burns Harbor, and Dune Acres the way they are today. It’s such an industrialized area, but it retained that small-town sense of community. Everyone knows each other and attends park events and things like that even as it has become part of the great big world out there,” Sutliff said.
While passion like Sutliff’s isn’t uncommon among the small staff of the museum, her ability to tell these stories stands out thanks to her schoolwork. Having recently been in graduate school, Sutliff has been exposed to modern ideas about the role and use of museum spaces, reinvigorating the idea of as a place where stories are told and not just a place that collects old stuff.
Less than a year ago, the library board approved Sutliff’s proposal to renovate the entire museum even though she hadn’t been curator for all that long. The renovations started in November and are expected to be completed in February. Beyond updating the displays, entire walls have been moved to open up the space.
“I didn’t just want to update the look. I believe that we hold in trust the history of this community, but we’re not just supposed to hold onto artifacts. I think we need to exhibit them, we need to change with the times and find more ways to make the story we’re telling accessible,” she said.
Once completed, the museum will cover more recent years, feature a local art section, and start off its new temporary exhibit space with stories of Duneland’s ghost towns.
“City West is a good example. In the mid-1800’s, it was supposed to rival Chicago and Michigan City. There was a race on to see who would become the main port city for this part of Lake Michigan. City West was located near the eastern border of the state park,“ Sutliff said.
It’s stories like these that shaped Westchester Township, and it’s stories like these that make museum patrons realize that before they visited, they didn’t even know what they didn’t know. But thanks to Sutliff and the museum staff, it’s easier and more fun than ever to find out.