The following excerpt is from an article about the renovation of the McCain House, which houses the Armstrong County, Pennsylvania’s Historical Museum.
The McCain House, home of the Armstrong County Historical Museum, is getting an overhaul so it can keep on telling the story of Armstrong County’s history.
The three-story museum building’s antiques and delicate artifacts were showing signs of mold, its plaster was falling down and its paint was peeling. In the nearly 30 years as a museum, its collection of thousands of items has never been counted in an inventory.
But thanks to the volunteers who keep up the county’s history within its walls, the 167-year-old house and its valuable belongings will be as good as new when the museum reopens in the spring.
“A lot of attention was given to the collection but the building was falling down around it,” said Ron Crytzer, vice president of the Armstrong County Historical Museum and Genealogical Society.
….
Every Thursday for about four hours, Crytzer and another volunteer, Vesta Csir, tag, number, describe and catalog museum items in every room.
“It was never inventoried,” said Crytzer. “Things were brought in and left. The large items that came in ended up on the first floor. Many items didn’t get recorded because of the short number of volunteers.”
Crytzer expects to have everything inventoried in about a year, and along with the house’s improvements completed by spring, be ready to greet the museum’s visitors for a long time to come.
Read the full article by Mitch Fryer in the November 12, 2009 edition of the Leader Times.
