History of the Museum

     In 1981, 19 people had a dream of preserving our East Tennessee heritage, Tennessee Wesleyan College and the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church provided the Old College Building, an historic landmark placed on the National Register in 1983, on a rent free basis to the museum association. After extensive renovation, the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum opened on June 13, 1982 with nine complete rooms of exhibits containing more than 2,000 items touching on nine different aspects of development including pioneer life, agriculture, industry, medicine and law, and education.

     In time, however, the museum experienced growing pains and the search was on to find larger quarters. In 1989, a section of the old McMinn County High School was given to the museum and the new facility, with much support from the community as well as state and local government, underwent an extensive face lift. So after years of dreams, months of planning, days of construction and hours of volunteer manpower, the new facility opened its doors in November of 1989. New exhibits included an early sports area, a free standing country store and log cabin, and a sewing corner in addition to previous favorites such as the pioneer, railroad, black heritage and religious exhibits. The two most exciting additions were the museum Guild gift shop and the Guild community room.

     Room furnishings in the 26 permanent exhibit areas range from pioneer simplicity to Victorian splendor and include displays of decorative glass, needlework, fine art and period costumes. The museum offers a bi-monthly changing exhibit, an annual doll show and one of the South's largest quilt shows. The museum's collection of 19th and early 20th century quilts is one of the finest in Tennessee

     The museum currently offers a wide variety of workshops for both adults and children of all age levels and interests. The educational program consists of two major four-day programs, the traveling trunk program, two types of tours created for students of various ages, and an audio visual area complete with videos and a library with educational historical books. The museum serves approximately 4,500 students each year.

     The museum is eternally grateful to its two groups of volunteers: the Museum Guild and the Quilter's Guild. Each group has taken on fund raising projects to aid the museum in its many endeavors, and the success of the museum can be directly attributed to the efforts of these volunteers.

     A good museum attracts, entertains, arouses curiosity, leads to questioning and thus promotes learning. Each year the museum strives to continue to offer quality programs, exhibits and workshops.

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