The Hattiesburg Convention Commission’s newest attraction has gotten its physical start, as work has begun on the site of the upcoming Moeller Military Vehicle Museum in the East 6th Street Museum District.
Rick Taylor, executive director of the commission, said construction on the site – which will be located on the concrete slab across the street from the African American Military History Museum at 305 East Sixth Street – started recently, with concrete “footers” installed to help preserve the concrete.
“So you see some of the construction fencing, you see some of the metal up on the slab and you see a lot of holes,” he said. “So we’re pouring all the footers and columns for the building.
“We probably won’t start putting the building up until right after the New Year; they’ll let that concrete sit a little bit.
“But this was a big step for us.”
Work on the site was somewhat delayed by conditions at the concrete slab at that location, which was installed in 1931.
“That’s put us off at least a year and a half, (because) that (former) building was removed, and that wall was left,” Taylor said. “It’s really important to us, because that whole street – all those museums – are really historic, so it’s really important to retain that slab.
“So we had to go through quite a bit of engineering to make sure that it was adequate to build on top of (that structure). It was a real challenge for us, trying to figure out how to keep that historic aspect there, and yet still use it for some pretty heavy trucks.”
The vehicles for the museum – which are donated by Don Moeller, a Georgia physician who expressed a desire to put his collection of 13 rare vehicles in the museum – have already arrived in Hattiesburg and are being kept in a local off-site storage center.
“We’ve kind of got all the pieces together,” Taylor said. “We’ve just got to see this building construction go forward, but we’re optimistic that it won’t take that long.
“It’s a metal building, and we’ll finish out the interior, so it shouldn’t take as long as a traditional stick-built type building.”
The Moeller Military Vehicle Museum has been in talks for the last couple of years.
Although commission officials had originally planned to house outdoor vehicles at the site, the pristine condition of Moeller’s vehicles will require them to be placed in a building. In fact, one of the vehicles – a very rare military ambulance - must be displayed in a climate-controlled facility.
In addition, the slab’s large size will allow officials to build a trailhead to the Longleaf Trace, across from where the trail ends at East 6th Street. The vehicles are expected to take up approximately 40 percent of the building, which will leave room for future growth.
Officials also plan to build a large courtyard at the current site of the outdoor movies on the other side of the museum. Although Taylor originally hoped the museum would open by the end of this year, those plans have been pushed back to sometime next year, only in part because of the concrete slab.
“I’m excited that we’ve gotten from planning to actual work,” Taylor said. “We planned and we analyzed, and then you’ve got to get your engineers to do their thing, and engineers are (cautious) by nature.
“And you want that … but you kind of had to cut through (the slab) to do some core sampling to figure out the thickness and all that. I am excited that we have finally gotten past the analyzing, planning, equipment purchasing and material purchasing, and now we’re actually going to start putting things in the ground and seeing it stand up.”
Back in October, students from John C. Winters’ public history class at University of Southern Mississippi contributed to the project by giving presentations on their choice of vehicle to be displayed in the museum upon its opening.
During the presentations, which took place October 5 in the Liberal Arts Building on the Southern Miss campus, each of the groups displayed sideshows of one vehicle for the museum, along with information on that piece and why the students chose that particular vehicle. The vehicles discussed, which range from World War II to the Vietnam War, included the M718 ambulance, the M-42 command truck, the DUKW amphibious truck and the M274 “Mule.”
“We’re certainly very excited to have the students involved … and I think there’s a great future in us working with the history department, involving the students and creating a historically accurate, hands-on presentation (at the museum,” Taylor said. “We want kids to really connect with the history that’s there and what we’re presenting in the museum.”
