McHenry Museum Guest Book
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 37° 38.547 W 120° 59.699
10S E 676895 N 4168036
This Guest Book is in the lobby of the McHenry Museum, created originally as a library from a bequest by Oramil McHenry.
Waymark Code: WMJEC0
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 11/07/2013
Views: 2
From the Museum web page:
A Citizen's Cultural Center Committee was formed in 1965 to raise funds for a Museum and Art Center. By 1971 contributions from individuals, organizations and foundations had progressed to the point where the City of Modesto felt sure enough of the ultimate success of the project to convert the vacated library building into a Museum and Art Center. The committee's first step was to carefully restore the building to its original beauty. The Central California Art League occupied four rooms in the basement and developed galleries to display local artists work. The main floor was developed into the McHenry Museum. One room became the changing exhibit room, another to display historic painting, and the third was devoted to “permanent” displays. The displays were vignettes of vintage rooms such as a kitchen, living room, blacksmiths shop, etc. The auditorium was also part of the museum and was used for a variety of events from musical presentation to city council meetings.
The museum continued in that configuration until 2003 when the Art League moved to new quarters and the museum was able to utilize the entirety of the building. That also meant that much remodeling had to be done in the basement to transform it from an art gallery to a museum. A fund raising campaign by the McHenry Museum & Historical Society provided funds to transform the art galleries into museum vignettes. The use of the new space required a complete reorganization of both the main floor and basement spaces.