New Historic House Museum planning

[Laura Gregory]

Hello House Museum Community - our historical organization in a small town in NC is in the beginning stages of restoring a 19th century home and office of a local physician located in a National Register district.  We are developing the business plan and are considering details such as whether to charge admission or not or possibly free for locals but small fee for those outside of the county.  Also trying to determine what hours of operation are practical or most typical for house museums?  We are an all-volunteer organization so hours of operation will depend upon availability of volunteers but was curious which days/times are most suitable for a house museum? Additionally, we are not sure how to estimate the expected number of guests/attendees or how to gauge interest in a historical vernacular house museum?

Any input or resources for planning of a house museum would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Markus Sandy]

Hi Laura, 

We are in similar situation in Palacios, Texas: historical organization in a small town in a restored and registered building.

We request a $5 donation for admission except for members and children.  Visitors are free to browse but we also offer to give either an overview or full tour; most accept a guided tour. I generally find that visitors double their donation when they get a full and engaging/informative/fun tour.

We are also volunteer run, but with few volunteer docents since 2020 and so have limited our hours to Tues - Fri noon to 4pm and Saturday's 10am to 2pm. Closed Mondays and by appointment on Tuesdays. We have a regular "Brown Bag Lunch Chat" presentation on third Thursdays. Based on visitor feedback, we are considering opening on Sunday afternoons as there is little to do for visitors who stay in town over the weekend (most shops are closed).

We had 1,961 visitors in 2023. About 15% were children.  

I hope this is helpful information.

Markus Sandy, Trustee

Palacios Area Historical Association

City by the Sea Museum

Palacios, Texas

[Michelle Brown-Burdex]

Hi Laura,

We maintain the Mabel B. Little Heritage House owned by Sam & Luck Mackey in the historic Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma.  We currently accept donations.  We have a volunteer that opens the home Tuesday-Thursday from 1 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.  We are available for tours on Saturdays by appointment.  

Most museums are closed on Mondays or Tuesdays.  I would check with the hours of your closest attractions.  Often, tourists try and plan to visit several sites in close vicinity.  

Michelle Burdex

Greenwood Cultural Center 

]

[S. Komandosky]

Laura,

We have had a small house museum operating  in our small town in Taylor for nearly 50 years. It is owned by the City and they pay for utilities and most maintenance. We do not charge admission but encourage donations. 

We are located in the boyhood home of Texas’ youngest governor. The house was built in 1887 and still contains many of the original furnishings. We have downstairs set up as it might have looked when the family lived there. Our museum displays are on the second floor. 

We also organized a 501(c)3 non-profit Friends of the Moody Museum group to help with funding for projects. This group provides the money necessary for programming and archival supplies that are not covered in the City budget. 

We are totally operated by volunteers and have generally found that most visitors come on weekends so our normal hours are 2-5 Friday and Saturday. We are open Sundays when we can find find someone willing to work.

The number of guests can vary for us. I would estimate that most years we have 400-500 visitors. Some of those are local history students and others just visitors. 

I was not trained as an archivist or in museum work, my background is as a teacher. None of our volunteers are actually trained in museum work but we have found some good online seminars offered through American Association for State and Local History and Gaylord Archival. There is also a sub-group of AASLH particularly devoted to Historic Sites and Houses that has online Zoom chats periodically.

Good luck with your project. If I can answer any other questions I would be happy to do so.

Susan Komandosky

On May 14, 2024, at 1:20 PM, Laura Gregory <lauragr...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello House Museum Community - our historical organization in a small town in NC is in the beginning stages of restoring a 19th century home and office of a local physician located in a National Register district.  We are developing the business plan and are considering details such as whether to charge admission or not or possibly free for locals but small fee for those outside of the county.  Also trying to determine what hours of operation are practical or most typical for house museums?  We are an all-volunteer organization so hours of operation will depend upon availability of volunteers but was curious which days/times are most suitable for a house museum? Additionally, we are not sure how to estimate the expected number of guests/attendees or how to gauge interest in a historical vernacular house museum?

Any input or resources for planning of a house museum would be appreciated. Thank you.

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[Joy Bennett]

I would recommend having options available. If you have docents available to give tours, great! But there are a lot of people out there (myself included) who don’t like being required to be on a tour. I very much prefer the self-guided audio tours that you can use your phone for (it’s free!) or booklets. A lot of the single house museums ask for a suggested donation of $5, and I would also suggest looking into memberships and reciprocal memberships with other organizations like North American Reciprocal Museum Association, Time Travelers and any local or statewide organizations there might be. Offering hours when most people are free (weekends and evenings) will help you get traffic from families, but I know in a volunteer run organization, that can be tough to staff. I also recommend looking at doing regular programming, and checking with the local schools to see what needs might be met with field trips.

 

Ms. Joy L. Bennett, MA

Curator and Archivist

Hancock Historical Museum

422 West Sandusky

Findlay, OH 45840

419-423-4433

www.HancockHistoricalMuseum.org

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[Haley Moloney]

Laura, I am not sure what small town you are starting in, or if it is anywhere near Guilford county but if you want to set up a time to meet via zoom I would be happy to help you and answer some of your questions. I can see if I can get some other house museums near ours to join on too.

 

Haley Moloney

Executive Director | Preservation Greensboro Incorporated
Blandwood Mansion | 447 West Washington Street | Greensboro NC 27401 | 336.272.5003

Are you a member yet? Learn more about Greensboro's only member-supported preservation organization by exploring our our website or joining our Facebook page. Please donate today!

From: aaslh-historic-h...@googlegroups.com <aaslh-historic-h...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Laura Gregory

Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2024 2:21 PM
To: AASLH Historic House Museum Community <aaslh-historic-h...@googlegroups.com>

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