Recognizing Det. Charles Steen’s office at the Palestine Police Department isn’t difficult for first-time visitors.

The historic photographs from the department’s past, lining the painted cinder block walls, serve as framed welcome signs leading to his office door.

When Steen, a former motorcycle officer nicknamed “Officer Long Barrel” for his extra-long pistol, swings open the door, visitors can step back in time to a long-gone Palestine where officers walked downtown beats and kept an eye out for a red light signaling trouble.

A time when the city’s police chiefs had the titles of city marshal or superintendent, and could be spotted by their longer neckties, rather than the bowties worn by patrolmen.

A time when the police superintendent could walk into the city council meeting and tell the city fathers that he’d purchased a motorcycle for the department’s use and he needed reimbursement.

Nearly 200 photographs, memorabilia, an old siren and the red light fill the small, windowless office, making Steen’s flat screen computer monitor and desk phone look out of place.

Welcome to the Palestine Police Museum, one of the city’s best-kept secrets.

“What Palestine knows is I’m working on a book on the history of the department. That was in the paper,” Steen said. “But I don’t think I really went into the fact that I was making a museum.”

Built by Steen, the museum commemorates the department’s past back to its inception in 1871 through photos, badges, equipment and even a uniform, donated by officers’ family members and community members who heard of his plans to write a book chronicling the department’s history, with biographies of the various police chiefs.

When the city council voted to have a police department in December 1871, the department was set up with a city marshal and two policemen, according to old council minutes. The marshal title remained until 1909, when the city adopted a commissioner form of government and changed the title to police chief.

Making the time and extra effort to collect and chronicle the department’s history isn’t an easy feat, police chief Larry Coutorie said.

“I think it’s something that frequently in departments — because we become so involved in day-to-day activities policing an entity — goes unattended,” Coutorie said. “I think it’s good that Detective Steen has dedicated himself to digging out the past, documenting it and preserving it.

“I’m very impressed,” Coutorie said. “He’s very tenacious. That’s why he’s a good detective. He’s done this completely on his own.”

Every photograph and item has a story, which Steen gladly shares with visitors.

Take the story of the city’s first police motorcycle, purchased in 1913 by police superintendent Turner Parker Moore.