Overton Heritage Museum Completes Improvements

The Overton County Heritage Museum has completed building improvements that were made with the help of a $10,000 grant.

Heritage Museum Director Paula Stover said the grant came from a portion of $5 million that state legislatures provided to museums across the state. Stover said the museum used the grant to replace an old metal sign that was attached to the building.

“It has enhanced the looks of the outside of the museum greatly because it’s got the outline of the state of Tennessee,” Stover said. “And it’s got the Tennessee flag on it so it has the three stars to represent the three divisions and it really looks good.”

Stover said the museum used the grant to do some much-needed repairs including replacing gutters and downspouts to address leaking issues the building had. Stover said the improvements not only have made the building better but also have brought more visitors to the museum.

“There is seldom any time that we don’t have visitors inside the museum,” Stover said. “People like to come by and talk and then they want to see what we’ve newly accomplished and we have a lot of visitors from out of town.”

Stover said the grant had very strict terms. Stover said unfortunately the museum could not find more uses to use the funding and ended up returning some of the funds.

“We asked to use part of it to cover some new landscaping and whatever,” Stover said. “They turned us down on that so we returned what few funds we had left.”

Stover said she encourages those who have already been to the museum to visit again as the museum has some new exhibits. Stover said now the museum covers a wide range of wars from the Revolutionary War to Desert Storm.

The Overton Heritage Museum is open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 9am -2pm.