Our Mission Statement

Our mission of intent is to endorse and encourage the collection and preservation of the cultural and social heritage of the community, by recreating periods of past history for the education of present and future generations.

Our History

The Concordia Area Heritage Society was organized in 1984 by a group of people interested in preserving the cultural and social heritage of Concordia and the surrounding settlements of Alma, Emma. and Ernestville. Charter members were Virgil and Deanna Rehmsmeyer, Virginia Schnakenberg, Patty Dionne, Melba Boeshen Don Dittmer, Mildred Flandermeyer, Laurie Kesemann, Willard and Pearl Frerking, Paul and Louise Wobus.

Concordia Area Museum

One of the major projects of the Heritage Society is the Concordia Area Museum. The Museum had its start in the Lohefner House. In 2003, after the sale of the Lohefner House to the Concordia Fire Protection District, the Museum was re-established at its current location, occupying three rooms on the middle floor of the Concordia Community Center, 8th and Gordon, in Concordia, MO.

Other notable projects of the group:

• Reprinted "Concordia, Missouri A Centennial History", book written by Harry R. G. Voigt
• Published "The Concordia Area Heritage Society, Preserving Our Heritage", a pictorial review of the Concordia area from about the late 1800s to the 1920s history book
• Donated $1,000 for the restoration of the Doughboy statue in Central Park and also applied a coat of water-sealer to the statue
• Paid $1,288 for paint and supplies to refurbish the caboose in Central Park.
• Placed a historical marker in 1991 at the old Missouri Pacific Railroad caboose in Central Park
• Sponsored a book reading and signing by Robert W. Frizzell, "Independent Immigrants – A Settlement of Hanoverian Germans in Western Missouri"