ECLECTIC COLLECTION

The Layland Museum, located in the former Cleburne Public Library building, archives an eclectic mix of artifacts collected by Cleburne businessman William J. Layland throughout the early 1900s. Layland’s heirs gifted the collection to the city of Cleburne in 1963. Approximately five hundred items comprise the Layland collection including antique guns, fossils, Native American artifacts, photographs, and a selection of game animal trophy mounts. Today, the museum also embraces a broader mission recording changes in the community, documenting new construction and improvements, and archiving details on historic structures and preserving historic city government records. The museum’s building, the former library, was completed in 1905 courtesy of an Andrew S. Carnegie grant for the establishment of rural libraries across the country. It was also the first structure in Cleburne to be designed by a professional architectural firm. The Texas firm Smith and Moore designed this two-story brick masonry tribute to the Classical Revival style, earning it a listing on both the state and national landmark registries as well as its State Antiquities Landmark status.