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The history of Eden is slowly taking shape on Washington Street.

The Eden Historical Museum, which has welcomed more than 1,800 visitors from 21 states since it opened last fall, still lacks about half its planned displays.

Officials originally had hoped to finish all the exhibits this year. But now it looks more like early next year, curator Julie Ganis said last week.

“The problem is actually writing the text for the storyboards, which is taking so long,” she said.

Volunteers comb through various sources to compile history for 10- to 15-year spans, then whittle that down to fit on the storyboards.

“It’s very difficult, because you’re afraid of leaving something out,” Ganis said.

The new displays are broken into five sections covering the period from 1900 to 1967, when the former towns of Leaksville, Spray and Draper consolidated to form Eden.

The first five displays cover the time millions of years before man settled in the area to 1899.

The museum, a former restaurant and shop donated by the Harrington family, sits on Washington Street in the Olde Leaksville District.

Volunteers have spent too many hours to count fixing up and running the museum, Ganis said. Local carpenter Mike Carter volunteered his skills to help create the second section of displays. Pat Whitten, who died in February, helped conceive and build the first part of the museum along with his wife, director Melissa Whitten, and Ganis.

The museum was created in 2007 as a project of the Eden Historical Society. But it opened only periodically for special displays, such as the ones on Jesse James and World War II.

During that time, volunteers collected artifacts and raised money for permanent displays.

In February 2009, a $24,000 grant from Home Savings Bank allowed the museum to open its doors to the public with permanent exhibits in September that year.

The earlier displays were homemade, using computers and copiers.

The permanent displays are professionally made, which also adds to the time to get them ready.

Meanwhile, the museum continues to solicit historical items to add to exhibits.

Recent acquisitions include the doors from DeHart’s, a five-dime store, that will be put in a front window and an as-yet-unidentified wood tool from Nantucket Mills.

“Usually, the most interesting things people bring in are those oddball items,” Ganis said.

They’re looking for local drugstore bottles from the early 1900s to go in a “doctor’s office” to be set up in one of the front windows, she said.

Also on the list: items from the Great Depression, tobacco-related pieces such as tags and bags, Vietnam War memorabilia, photos and biographies of local war veterans, anything from Marshall Field related to the textiles made in Eden’s mills, and any other items of local interest.

The museum remains on limited hours, open only on Saturdays and for special events because it is staffed by volunteers, Ganis said.

The museum will be open Nov. 14 during the Holiday Open House for the Olde Leaksville Shopping District and Dec. 14 for the Leaksville Merchants Candlelight Downtown.

Construction hasn’t kept the museum from being open or offering special displays. One that focused on the Draper Speedway, which operated from the 1940s to the 1960s, ran from Sept. 11 through Saturday.

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com