Hennepin History Museum announces Temporary Museum Closure for Building Improvements
Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 10:43AM
Temporary Museum Closure for Building Improvements: October 14 - November 4, 2019
Hennepin History Museum has partnered with the nonprofit Northern Bedrock Historic Preservation Corps (Northern Bedrock) based in Duluth to do repair and restoration to the historic Christian family residence, a nearly one hundred year old mansion that has served as the county historical museum since the mid-1950’s. Northern Bedrock, which was founded in 2011 in a partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society through a grant from Minnesota’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund, is an AmeriCorps service learning organization that provides hands-on training in the historic preservation trades for young adults.
“We are excited to partner with Northern Bedrock and benefit from an organization like theirs being here in Minnesota,” said Museum Executive Director John Crippen. “As stewards of this important building, we are thrilled to have experts in historic restoration and preservation directing the restoration work. And it is an added bonus to be able to help to train a new generation of master craftspeople in the field of historic preservation and restoration.”
The project is being funded through a grant from Hennepin County. Hennepin History Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and receives a portion of its annual operating support from the county. As part of this partnership, two Hennepin County Commissioners serve on the Museum’s Board of Directors.
The Museum will suspend their public museum and research library hours from October 14 - November 4 while Northern Bedrock works on woodwork restoration in the signature Great Room, and light plaster repair and painting throughout the Museum. During the temporary closure, fulfillment of archival
research requests by Museum staff will also be suspended.
Regular public hours at the Museum will resume Tuesday, November 5 with the opening of Votes for Women, an exhibit about the suffrage movement in Hennepin County that is in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the battle for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
