Around the Town: Stearns History Museum Gets Face-Lift

ST. CLOUD -- The Stearns History Museum is about to undergo a major renovation by installing a fire suppressant system.

"Basically we have a very priceless collection of artifacts and when the building was built it didn't need a fire suppressant system but we have decided it is important to add that in, so we can move forward with some other exhibit projects."

Carie Essig is the Stearns History Museum's Executive Director.  She says the galleries will be closed for about four-six weeks during the renovation. However, other areas of the museum will remain open.

"We invite people who love to come out and do research in the summertime to call us and make sure the research center is open but we plan on keeping that open as much as we can."

The children's area will also stay open. Essig says work will include removing the ceiling, painting and moving several exhibits.

"We are going to keep our very popular artifind exhibit but we are going to put it in a new place. We're going to keep our pan-car exhibit and put it in a new place and we're going to update that a little bit. We are going to rearrange our World War I exhibit and just make some refreshing updates this summer."

The Stearns History Museum's building was built in 1982.

Every Friday during the News at Noon Show, WJON Reporter Chrissy Gaetke travels around the St. Cloud metro area to highlight local celebrations, businesses and charity events. Do you have a suggestion of where she should go? Email chrissy@wjon.com