Marshall Civic Center
and
Nicholas Beazley Aviation Museum

Building the Vision

Two visions have merged into one - The Marshall Civic Center and Nicholas Beazley Aviation Museum, a single facility to incorporate a modern state-of-the art, multi-purpose civic center and an educational and historical aviation museum that preserves the unique and heralded exploits of Marshall's aviation pioneers.

In the year 2002, two highly significant events occurred in Marshall, Missouri. In April, former mayor Shirley Nightwine Martin passed away. Mayor Martin recognized the need for a community meeting place that would provide a location for both local and outside events, socialization, education, and entertainment. Mayor Martin left behind a bequest for a civic center to be built to fill this need. About the same time, a small group of volunteers located and acquired a piece of Marshall's history, an airplane manufactured in Marshall in 1929 by the Nicholas-Beazley Airplane Company. The combination of these two events has resulted in the ultimate vision of building a structure to house both entities, thus enriching the Marshall community in far-reaching ways.