A $70,000 grant for the purchase and installation of display and storage cabinets at the Randolph County Historical Museum must be used by April, 2027.
Representatives of the Randolph County Historical Museum were front and center at Monday’s Roanoke City Council Meeting to present the city’s elected officials with an update on where the museum stands and what is needed in the short- and long-term future in order to get the museum to a place where it can finally open its doors.
Dana Chandler is president of the museum’s board and spoke on behalf of the museum representatives. Chandler is also a former archivist at Tuskegee University and a current member of the Wedowee Town Council.
Chandler presented an enticing vision for what the museum will include once its doors are open and spelled out some of the details required to make that vision a reality.
The Roanoke mayor and city council have a vested interest in the progress of the museum since the city owns the former post office building on Main Street in which the museum plans to operate, and the museum leases the building from the city.
Chandler told the council that the most urgent need is to have an HVAC system installed in the building to make it permanently climate controlled. The museum received a $70,000 grant from the state historical commission to purchase cabinets for storage and display of historical items and artifacts at the museum. However, those cabinets cannot be installed until the HVAC system is put in. The materials from which the cabinets are constructed would not hold up in an environment that is not climate controlled.
There is some urgency to getting this process complete. The grant money for the cabinets expires in April of 2027, so the museum must use those funds by that deadline or lose them.
Over $200,000 has already gone into the renovation of the building over the years, including mold removal and a new roof, along with many other projects both inside and outside the building.
Chandler said there is a specific vision for how the museum’s displays will look once its doors open. The goal is to spell out the history of the county “from creation to today,” and provide a background on what existed in the area even before it became Randolph County in 1836.
It will highlight some of the county’s more well-known historical elements such as Roanoke’s Ella Smith Doll and Rock Mills’s famous pottery. But Chandler said future attendees to the museum will also have a chance to learn much deeper history about the presence of gold in the county, the rich musical history here, the Rosenwald schools that were built here and so much more.
“This will be one of our shining stars in our community,” he said.
He closed by inviting the mayor and council to take a tour of the building. The council obliged by scheduling a workshop meeting for that purpose at 5 p.m. on April 6 before the regularly scheduled meeting that evening at 6 p.m.
