The White County Heritage Museum will launch an interior expansion project to protect and organize its historic collections.
That after securing $35,450 from a highly competitive state grant. White County Heritage Museum Director Brenda Templeton said the Main Street facility currently struggles to house its extensive archives because a mostly dirt-floored basement rules out lower-level usage.
“The museum was originally the library years ago, and we have no storage,” Templeton said. “So we was kind of taking about a third of a part of the back of the building, and we have tried to make a storage area out of it.”
Templeton said the local organization was one of more than 160 applicants statewide competing for the preservation funding pool administered through the Tennessee State Museum. This is the fourth year of the grant program, which funds capital maintenance and infrastructure updates for local historical institutions.
“We were surprised because we really didn’t think we’d get it,” Templeton said. “We were just hopeful.”
Templeton said specialized drawer expansions and backroom cabinets will protect delicate materials like old maps and newspapers while freeing up space in the main public viewing area for rotating historical displays. Current exhibits include a Civil War gun belonging to George Dibrell and an old-school model train setup tracking the historic coal mining route between Sparta and Tullahoma.
“We’re going to have to be really organized,” Templeton said. “We’re just going to have to draw something up to make it fit.”
Templeton said the museum staff plans to design the layout of the storage area themselves before hiring a contractor to perform the physical construction work.
The facility at 144 South Main Street in Sparta will maintain its regular schedule of Thursday 10am–4pm, Friday 9am–4pm, and Saturday 9am–2pm while the renovations are underway.