Approximately 12 years after the closure of the Lumberton Museum necessitated by various measures of weather damage, officials from the City of Lumberton are looking forward to completing repairs on the building and re-opening it to the public with the help of the Mississippi Main Street Association.
The matter was discussed at last week’s meeting of the Lumberton Board of Aldermen, where Mayor Quincy Rogers said the main street association is taking control of the repair project. Bids will soon be accepted to replace the wiring and other electrical measures in the building.
“They’re going inside the museum and getting everything out to get it wrapped up … to get that place up to code so we can get it back open,” Rogers said. “Hopefully, we’ll try to get it open before summer.”
The museum, which is located on East Main Avenue in Lumberton, opened in 1995 but was shut down in 2012 because of rain damage to the roof of the building. The facility was further hampered by Hurricane Isaac when it made landfall in August 2012, causing further damage to the roof and walls of the museum that housed a decades-old jail cell, a World War II gas mask, a 1920s dentist chair and more.
In early 2015, a city meeting was held to discuss reviving the Lumberton Economic Development Council, which aimed to design a special project for the oversight and restoration of the museum.
In July of that year, architectural historians William M. Gatlin and Jennifer V.O. Baughn with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History visited the facility to help city officials get assistance and guidance for the restoration of the museum after termite damage.In August 2016, the museum underwent the first step in the recovery process when it received a new roof made possible by the efforts of the Lumberton Museum Committee. The committee was able to raise approximately $2,400 in donations for the roof after originally putting the project out to bid.
“We’re very excited (to get the museum back open),” Rogers said. “The museum has been down for a long time now.
“We do have a lot of history in that museum that I don’t want to lose, and I know our citizens don’t want to lose it. So we’re very excited at this time to have some type of movement on it.”
The museum opened in 1995 in a law office as part of Lumberton's Centennial Celebration.
The museum moved to Old City Hall sometime around 2002, when the law office was sold. There was more room at Old City Hall and several additions were made to the museum.
Old City Hall was built in 1904. Throughout the years, the facility has housed an armory, library, Boy Scout meeting spot and even a school lunch room.
