Located on historic ground, Falls City museum brings collections together

Although Hoemann grew up on a farm and occasionally fed pigs, she didn’t have a strong attachment to the species. But her mother thought it would be good for the 10-year-old girl to have a hobby, so she encouraged Hoemann to collect more pig-themed items.

“I had nothing to say about it,” Hoemann recalled.

Eighty years later, Hoemann has amassed a collection of more than 1,700 such objects: pig-shaped salt-and-pepper shakers, pig pictures, pig-adorned tablespoons and, of course, piggy banks.

These days, the entire pig collection — including that first set of little figurines — is housed in a unique museum in downtown Falls City that is one of the 70 sites featured this year in the Nebraska Passport tourism program.

Established in 2021 by Hoemann and Susan Sipple, the museum contains at least 50 different collections like Hoemann's pigs — most donated by the collectors themselves or their families.

Not surprisingly, it's called the Collection Museum.

Collections include Christmas-themed buildings, Nativity scenes and "Wizard of Oz" items. Sipple has donated her collection of lighthouses acquired over the years during her travels, including those on the East Coast.

One reason Sipple said people donate their collections is so others can see them.

“(One guy) said, ‘We have a lot of different things displayed in our house that are collections. But nobody ever sees them,’" Sipple said.

Since being added as a Nebraska Passport stop this year, the Collection Museum has seen a sharp increase in the number of visitors. In May and June alone, Sipple reported, more than 400 people came to the museum, which is located in the Southeast Nebraska town of just more than 4,000 people.

Sipple said the museum used to average about a half-dozen visitors per day. Now, it averages about 20.

“We’ve had as many as 55 people (come) on a Saturday,” she said.

Located in a brick building that once housed a clothing store, the museum sits on the site that once contained a house and a barn built by David and Ann Dorrington in 1857.

As chronicled by Falls City native and former Omaha World-Herald columnist Robert Nelson, David Dorrington loathed slavery. Along with his wife Ann, the two used their property to shelter slaves seeking freedom using the Lane Trail through Falls City, which was founded in 1857. The trail was named after Falls City founder James Lane.

In a 1922 newspaper interview, the Dorringtons' daughter, Annie Dorrington Reavis, said that Black people fleeing slavery “would stay in our hay loft all day and then would slip away in the dead of night or get through under a wagon load of corn.” Ann Dorrington would feed the escaping slaves while they hid in the barn.

The site of the Dorrington house and barn, which were removed from the lot in the 1880s as Falls City developed, was added to the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom list last year.

The Collection Museum is one of two Nebraska Passport stops in Falls City.

Across the street, Sarah Ahern owns and operates Gatherings Market in a building that used to house a bank and law office. Ahern’s office is inside the bank vault.

Ahern said she started the upscale home decor boutique store five years ago after people saw she had an eye for design. Ahern also provides fresh flowers for events including funerals and weddings.

Since being part of the Nebraska Passport program, Ahern said she has new people come into the store. In addition to being good for her business, Ahern said, the program helps elevate Falls City’s profile.

“It’s really good for our community to bring people into our community and see what we have to offer,” she said.