Willa Cather Childhood Home Dedication & Ribbon-Cutting
It was a beautiful, breezy afternoon on June 8 for our Willa Cather Childhood Home Rededication and Ribbon Cutting! Willa Cather Foundation leadership, project partners and supporters, Nebraska State Poet Matt Mason, and Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate Miranda Davis participated in a dedication and ribbon-cutting at the Willa Cather Childhood Home.
We were honored to celebrate the reopening of this National Historic Landmark and its status as a literary pilgrimage destination for more than fifty years. Just six months after the house reopened on Willa Cather’s 150th birthday, and a year after her statue was unveiled at the U.S. Capitol, the Willa Cather Childhood Home was restored and ready for its close-up! Thank you to our many supporters, members, and partners who made this day possible!
The ceremony and ribbon-cutting was followed by guided tours of the Willa Cather Childhood Home, the Farmers and Merchants Bank (and the Making A Place: A Long History of Red Cloud exhibit), and the construction site of the future Hotel Garber.
Read More About the Restoration
"I have a funny little room in the attic here, with a sloping ceiling, like my 'rose-bower' in our old first home. Do you remember?"—Cather in a 1945 letter to her brother Roscoe
L to R: Rev. Charles Peek, Master of Ceremonies; Former State Senator Burke Harr; Ashley Olson, Executive Director, Willa Cather Foundation (WCF); Robert Thacker, Past President, WCF; Miranda Davis, Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate; Matt Mason, Nebraska State Poet; Mark Bostock, President, WCF; Tracy Tucker, Director of Collections & Curation; Rachel Olsen, Director of Education & Engagement
View the image gallery below—and download designs of our souvenir program, poems, and remarks:
Scope & Significance Remarks by Ashley Olson
Acknowledgements Delivered by Robert Thacker
Dedicatory Poem by Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate Miranda Davis
Dedicatory Poem by Nebraska Poet Laureate Matt Mason
