The Historian
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Benjy Nelken is saving Greenville’s storied past one artifact at a time.
enjy Nelken lounges behind a desk strewn with loose papers and 19th-century Shakespeare volumes. He leans back, grips a pipe between his teeth and lights a match. “I’m sure I’ll get it back in
spades,” he drawls about his work, humor lurking behind a voice as
BY MACEY BAIRD
Nelken is Greenville’s unofficial historian. He’s a big, barrel-chested man with a penchant for tobacco, a man of irreverent humor who has preserved the city’s tumultuous past by creating five small museums. In a city that needs an economic engine in the worst way, proposals pop up every now and then to build a big museum in hopes of attracting tourists. There is talk of an African-American museum. There’s been talk of a Delta cultural museum near the levee. But none has gone anywhere. Meanwhile, people from the darnedest places drop by Nelken’s mini-museums to ogle his curious collections. “Have you talked to Benjy?” people say when asked about local history. “You
thick as molasses.
need to talk to Benjy.” Benjy Nelken has his own museum, a tribute to Greenville’s rich history that he has put together with his own hands. What started as decorations for his real estate office at 409 Washington Ave. has turned into an intriguing portal to the past. After foraging finds from his family’s attic and bidding on eBay, he has assembled a two-room contribution to Greenville’s storied yesteryear. And he hasn’t stopped. He has been the driving force behind the development of the Flood of 1927 Museum, the Goldstein Nelken Solomon Century of History Museum, the Greenville Air Force Base Museum and an exhibit located in the River Road Queen Welcome Center.
5 8 • W H AT E V ER H A P PE N ED TO M A I N ST R EE T ?
Most are city projects in partnership with the Greenville and Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau, which Nelken chairs. But the Greenville History Museum is his personal project. He’s invested thousands in it with no outside funding. On a gloomy Delta day, Nelken rises from his chair and lumbers to the front of the roomy storefront he converted into the history museum more than 20 years ago. “It’s been a work in progress since its beginning. I just observed the fact that there was no real history being saved here except the public library,” Nelken says. “I thought we had an interesting history that needed to be studied and celebrated.”
