Recovering from the Unexpected

It’s wonderful having a museum in an historic building. The building adds to the ambiance of the story we’re telling. What’s not so great, though, is the amount of maintenance the building needs on a regular basis.   Even worse, sometimes, are the repairs, and have we experienced a doozy this week!

On Monday, November 11, we had a pipe leak in one of the collections rooms in the basement of the Scriver Building. We were able to save all of the wet collections and greatly minimize the damage done to them, but not so with the structure itself. We suddenly have a major reconstruction project on our  hands that we certainly never saw coming.  The joy of working in an old, historic building!

Coincidentally, it’s Give to the Max Day. Staff was prepared to give a few behind-the-scenes tours of the collection space, but we’ve had to cancel those. We can’t have the public walk into a construction zone! This day of giving across Minnesota would be a GREAT time to support NHS as we deal with a disaster.  

We are looking at a hefty bill between the costs of demolition of the damaged sheetrock, reframing and sheetrocking the soffit, potentially tearing up and reinstalling carpet, repainting , and finally cleaning up the basement and moving collections back into place. If you can help us defray costs – even a little – we would be grateful! And if you’d like to lend a hand when it’s time to move back into the space, please let us know.   We can always use great volunteers!