Harmony Museum set to reopen after months of renovations
After months of meticulous renovations, the Harmony Museum is ready to unveil a fresh look with a grand reopening celebration.
A free open house will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 15, at 218 Mercer St.
“It’s wonderful,” Historic Harmony President Kathy Luek said of the changes. “It’s so nice to have everything refreshed, new and updated. It’s something that we’ve been looking forward to, knowing that we had to go through the shutdown and all the cleanup.”
The museum paused tours in June, before shutting down completely at the start of January, according to Luek.
One of the most significant changes saw the installation of 39 new casement windows that helped give the 216-year-old building more of an old-fashioned style.
Costs for that project alone were expected to check in at around $200,000.
To offset some of that burden, Historic Harmony officials secured a $97,000 Keystone Historic Preservation Construction Grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which receives revenue from the commonwealth's Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund.
The exterior is also set to receive a fresh coat of white paint as warmer weather approaches.
Additionally, the interior portion of the two-story building will have a different look.
“We decided to put local history in the main museum building and move the (gift) shop there,” Luek said. “The other building (the Wagner Building) that we had redone a couple of years ago will have Harmonist and Mennonite history.”
Historic Harmony, a nonprofit that preserves the borough’s history and heritage, operates the museum and eight other local structures, including the Wagner Building and Stewart Hall.
Since its founding in 1943, the organization has united the community behind countless projects, and the latest renovation was no exception.
“We had so much volunteer help from members and friends of members,” Luek said. “The whole community was consistently asking, ‘Can we help you do something?’ It really means a lot to us because that’s how we get to do all of our events and things — it’s mostly volunteers.”
The Harmony Museum, which was constructed in 1809, has previously served the community as a storage warehouse, a dry-goods store, a car dealership and a multipurpose building for the local fire department.
Tours of the museum again will be offered Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. Guided tours are scheduled at 1 and 2:30 p.m. A reservation is required for groups of 10 or more people.
