News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cumberland County’s Military Museum will be using grant money to make repairs.
Museum President Mark Pfaffenroth said they have hired an engineering firm that will begin the repairs in June. He said the bulk of the repairs need to be made to the second floor of the building which they currently are unable to use.
“They are going to design a plan to stabilize the second floor of the museum so that we can use it for museum admin space, a curator room, storage, and possibly further have an area for further display up there if we wanted to,” Pfaffenroth said.
Pfaffenroth said the museum houses about 5,000 artifacts dating from modern wars back to the American Civil War. He said the building they use was built in 1904. He said they received the grant money after Mayor Allen Foster and Representative Cameron Sexton toured the building and noticed the need for repairs.
“Representative Sexton noticed the damage upstairs on the second floor, which we can’t use because it’s not stable,” Pfaffenroth said. “So in July of 2022, the state gave us a grant for $500,000 to stabilize the second floor of the building, and also make other repairs to the building.”
Pfaffenroth said the repair process will be in three phases, he said that the decision to add more artifacts upstairs will be made after the initial repairs are finished. He said that if they do add more artifacts upstairs, further upgrades will be needed.
“If we put a display area up there, then we will have to get phase three which would be an elevator,” Pfaffenroth said. “So that we can have handicapped people have access to the upstairs.”
Pfaffenroth said they will likely have to temporarily close the museum for about 3 months to do the repairs, and if that is the case they want to do so from November to January because that is usually their slowest time for visitors.
