Fifteen years ago, a group of concerned citizens took an aging house with an ambitious goal in mind - to have a museum in Lawrence County.

Piece by piece and donation by donation, the Lawrence County Historical Museum became the needed vault for various pieces of the county's history.

From 1-5 p.m. Sunday, the Lawrence County Historical Society will celebrate the museum's 15th year with an open house. A program honoring past presidents is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.

Before the historical society purchased the house and property at 506 S. Sixth St., the house had previously been an apartment building, a single-family home and a business, said Fondalene Alfrey, a docent and exhibitor. Floors and walls needed considerable work.

"For several years, we could only show the downstairs," Alfrey said.

However, they had a few items, such as previous homeowner and prominent ironmaster, the late Col. George Noah Gray's original dining room and other pieces of furniture, she said. Once word spread about the museum, people began donating items. A 96-year-old woman living in Chicago sent an antique couch because she wanted it to be back in her hometown of Ironton. She died shortly afterward. Gray's great-great-granddaughter sent a portrait of him.

Through more donations, the museum began renovating the second floor room by room, with different rooms for particular people or aspects of county history. Nannie Kelly Wright, the only known woman ironmaster, has her own room in the house with several of her dresses, some of them coming from her travels to Paris. Two doors down is a military room, containing military uniforms and information about countians who have fought in wars throughout American history. The Kentucky Highlands Museum in Ashland, Ky., contributed items from the heyday of the Hanging Rock Iron Region. The museum also has hundreds of pieces of clothing, which includes 300 hats. Recently, it also received instruments and other items from the family of the late Dr. Dean Massie, a prominent Lawrence County OB/GYN.

Besides the items inside the museum, the house and property have a rich history. A woman named Elizabeth Ferguson purchased two and a half plots of land in 1870, and the main part of the house was built and valued at $2,200. On July 5, 1878, the property was transferred to Elizabeth Gray, Col. Gray's wife.

Gray came to Ohio as a young boy and developed an interest in the iron furnaces, then returned to his native Pennsylvania to complete his education. He returned to Lawrence County and became a school teacher. In 1861, he joined the 53rd regular Ohio Volunteers and fought in the Civil War.

Mrs. Gray's grandfather was the Rev. John Rankin, a well-known abolitionist. His home in Ripley is now an Underground Railroad museum. Rankin wrote his autobiography at the Gray home in 1873. He returned in 1881 to live and died there in 1886. An upstairs room at the museum contains his furniture and other artifacts, such as his Bible.

President Ulysses S. Grant was a parishioner of Rankin's in Ripley and visited with Rankin at the house. Another prominent visitor, Alfrey said, was President William McKinley.

Now, the museum attracts approximately 2,000 to 3,000 visitors per year, said Naomi Deer, historical society president. Spring and fall are slow times, but traffic is heavy during summer and Christmastime for the museum's Victorian Christmas.

"People come from Europe, Australia … They come from everywhere," Alfrey said.

Interest in genealogy research is very high now, Deer said. The historical society frequently receive calls from people all across the world who have managed to trace their lineages to Lawrence County natives. People find their grandparents' names in the military room's records. The museum is also a place where people who have moved away from Lawrence County can return and relive the past.

If the museum had not come to fruition, the results may have been tragic.

"We are trying to preserve the history of Lawrence County," Alfrey said. "If there wasn't a museum, much of this would be lost."