CANYON — West Texas A&M University President Walter V. Wendler provided an update on the progress of maintaining Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum’s presence on the university campus Monday afternoon, Feb. 23.
The museum was closed nearly a year ago in March 2025, due to serious fire and safety concerns following an inspection by the state fire marshal’s office.
Since that time, Wendler said he has been working with local and state officials to find solutions that would allow the museum to safely reopen.
“I’m doing everything I can to put the resources together, support it on campus. It will be the original building, what we refer to as Pioneer Hall. All of the 12,000 square foot building would be just where it is; it would be refurbished. It has sprinklers, but there’s some other things it would need. And it would be in that general location. But in order to do that, some of the other buildings need to go away.”
General estimates made by San Antonio firm
“The old library is unsafe. And the cost to fix it is not worth what it would cost to raze it and build another one,” Wendler said. “There’s a lot of moving parts in all this. It should be on campus and it should be where it is as long as the resources are available,” he said.
Wendler said WT hired a firm out of San Antonio that does cost estimates. All of the scenarios include demolition and then reconstruction to meet all the safety stipulations and be up to fire code.
The university annually spends about $1.2 million to support the operation of the museum and facilities.
What’s next: Paring down of collections, target date for decision
The museum contains more than 2 million artifacts. Wendler said he had discussed a place to store some of the collections with the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society. “And they are working to pare those (collections) down a little bit — to focus them and find out which aspects of the collections are most important for a museum like PPHM.”
He said there are too many items, and they might not all add to PPHM’s fundamental mission, which is to tell the story of West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.
Wendler said they are looking at a plan and are aming for May or June to determine its viability. “We are working with the Texas A&M system to analyze the various systems and buildings. They don’t normally do it with museums because we’ve got the only one in the system, because ours is unique to the state of Texas in what some people would call a unicorn issue.”
Wendler said that it was a two-step issue. The first step is to make sure they have capital funding to tune up the building, and the second is operational funding. “We need both of these, and we don’t have either right now.”
Estimated cost reduced as nature of museum changes
Wendler said the original cost, which varied from $100 million to $200 million, had now been reduced about 50%, with less exhibit space. “It would change the nature of the museum a little bit,” he admitted. “The clientele for the museum is changing. … People are looking at their cell phones when they’re in there, probably at related exhibits and so on.”
He said that they needed to figure out how to engage the new PPHM clientele. “It’s a tremendously unique and vital asset to both Texas and the United States.”
Wendler said they had also hired Gallagher & Associates as consultants, who looked over the museum a couple years ago. “They benchmarked it against similar museums in rural locations in various states and said the museum is too big. There’s a sweet spot in this process and we’re going to find it.”
He said the PPHM needs to be modernized, condensed and consolidated — but most important, as an architect himself, Wendler reiterated that the whole process is about protecting the health, safety and welfare of the general public. He pointed to the new Geneva Shaefer Education Building, an older structure which was updated for about $45 million, with everything being safe and meeting codes and stipulations.
“We even had a group of consultants from the Texas Historical Commission come up here for a few days a week ago, to look at our collections (at PPHM),” he said. “They were very impressed with the whole collection, but said it needed to be pared down. We have special issues here in the Panhandle that affect the museum — high winds and a lot of grit in the air.” He said they have to ensure the building is well insulated with good air filtration to protect the artifacts, as well as serve the public.
Wendler said that when several buildings are put together, as in the museum, there can be a propensity for leakage and other problems. “Sometimes buildings are added onto and they use an old code, rather than a new one.”
The issue of funding
As far as funding for the PPHM, Wendler said that it would be a combination of state and local funding, including some gift funding. In 1933, the original building cost was $50,000, with the first $25,000 raised locally and the other half coming from the state.
As far as utilizing the museum as an educational facility that would fall under the state’s E&G (Educational and General) designation, allowing them to get monies from the state, he said that Ken Burns and others have used the museum for documentaries and movies regarding West Texas and that he believed the museum is half educational and half a community facility. That could help with operational costs.
Wendler said that he had never seen a project as complicated as this one since he started at LSU in 1975.
“I know the passion is high,” he said.
Digitalization taking place on artifacts
He said the museum is working on digitizing its records. About five years ago, he proposed doing the digitalizing and met with some resistance, but he argued the Smithsonian and British Museum still had long lines, even though some items were shown online. “People want to go to the museums to actually see things up close — enjoying the tactility of the collections. I would like to see every artifact in that museum — paper, stone, plaster, metal and wood digitized,” he said.
Wendler said he has been proactive about the museum since he arrived at WT in 2016. He established the Cultural Foundation of the Texas Panhandle in 2021 to enhance both the museum’s and the “Texas” outdoor musical’s standing across the state. In 2024, he secured funds from Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp to conduct a feasibility study for a new museum building, which would preserve the original Pioneer Hall building.
Since 1932, PPHM has preserved and showcased the rich history of Texas from its location on the WT campus in Canyon and is a vital educational resource for the Panhandle and beyond.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Wendler says PPHM needs to be modernized, condensed
Reporting by Nell Williams, Amarillo Globe-News / Amarillo Globe-News
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