Museum Renovations Almost Completed

Renovations to the former Milford Police Department, which will now house the Milford Museum and the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Milford, are almost completed according to Executive Director Tom Summers and Curator Claudia Leister. The two organizations hope to be in the building in the next five or six weeks.

“What was the entrance to the police station will be a welcome to Milford area with old photographs blown up and placed on the walls,” Leister said. “As you walk through the larger doors, we will have permanent exhibits for the shipbuilding era, the railroad arriving in town as well as made in Milford items. We also hope to do a section on Native Americans there.”

When the police occupied the building, two locked doors blocked the back half of the building. They have been removed, creating a bright open space. The Chamber of Commerce offices will be located to the right of the front door with signage indicating where they will be. A turn in the hallway leads past several other offices.

“This will be my office,” Summers said, entering the first room in the hallway. “I have a lovely view of the treatment plant. The next office is for the Operations Manager.”

Leister joked that the last office on that hallway was for the person who “never gets to retire,” the curator.

“This is where the filing cabinets with information on the houses, people of Milford and genealogy information,” Leister said. “We are using the filing cabinets from the other building”

The new building will have a kitchen with a refrigerator and stove. The new building has significantly more space than the previous building which had been Milford’s first post office.

“Hindsight is 20/20,” Leister said. “Had we broken ground over there, this never would have happened. We would have had a nice meeting room, but no additional storage and exhibit space.”

The new building will have a much larger library area and there is now a place for the original Milford Chronicle editions as well as the microfiche machine, making it easier for people to research. The museum is adding handicap accessible bathrooms and a conference room as well. A room off the conference room is planned for more exhibit space.

“That room will be named for Dean Johnson’s dad, Richard,” Summers said. Johnson was a long-time supporter of the museum.

Leister explained that paint colors were chosen by local artists Heather Reaves and Nadia Zychal. Artwork will be displayed in the many hallways of the building. The museum also hopes to set aside one room for items from the Vineyard Shipyard.

“This ceiling had fallen through,” Leister said as she walked down a set of steps. “We are not able to use this as exhibit space as we cannot make it handicap accessible. Most of this will be used for storage space for now.”

Eventually, the museum hopes to install a lift in the building that would allow them to use the large conference room on the bottom floor. The conference room was used by the police when they housed the building. Leister stated that the mural on the wall representing the police would remain. A dark room will be converted to a kitchen for caterers once the handicap accessibility issue has been addressed.

“This was the ladies shower, and this is going to remain,” Summers said. “We thought about tearing it out but then remembered that we could use re-enactors who would need a place to change. It could also be used in an emergency.”

Another room downstairs will be storage for the chamber. Artifacts would be stored in other large rooms on the bottom floor. Leister stated that there were no concerns about the building flooding.

“This is the furthest room away from the river,” Leister said. “They did have an issue years ago and they put in a sump pump. The men’s shower is being removed, and it will be a work area for UD students and curators who are dealing with collections. There are still so many rooms that we are not sure what to do with, but there are so many possibilities.”

Summers stated that there was enough space that other municipal or organization offices could be housed in the building. In another room on the first floor, benches remain with hooks for handcuffs.

“We are leaving these here and adding a few handcuffs to them,” Leister said. “The exhibits here will be the hospital, hospital fair and Ladies Auxiliary. It will also have the silver and ladybug display.”

The statue of General A.T.A. Torbert will remain next to the old museum building. Lulu the Ladybug, who sits on the front step of the museum, is going to move to City Hall. The museum plans to purchase a second one for the front steps of the new building and Zychal has offered to paint the new one at no cost.

The museum received grant funding from the state to cover the costs of renovation, but Leister stated that they have exhausted those funds. They are accepting donations to help them with the remainder of the renovation project, including the installation of an elevator.

Donations can be made online by clicking on the Support Us tab. Because the museum has moved out of the building at 121 South Walnut Street, they do not suggest mailing checks. To drop a check off, send an email to learn when someone will be at the building.