Potential plans to enhance the Edmonds Historical Museum’s facilities and educational outreach were unveiled Thursday by Arnie Lund, vice president of the Edmonds-South Snohomish County Historical Society.

Lund stated that the society’s vision is to engage, educate and inspire the diverse community through stories from our past that generate insights about our future. Within those endeavors, it is the Edmonds Historical Museum’s goal to:

• Make history compelling and entertaining.
• Share and promote the region’s history.
• Collect and present historical documents and artifacts.
• Include the history of the entire community.

To accomplish  these goals, the museum has determined through multiple interviews, surveys and fact gathering that it needs to:

• Create a better way to share Edmonds’ past and build a brand around it.
• Bring the museum up to modern standards and build a framework to future-proof it.
• Center on stories that are immersive, interactive and relevant to the diverse community in order to grow the audience and volunteers.
• Continue to monitor and measure to make sure that the museum continually surprises, delights and inspires the community.
• Strive to get more of the museum’s collection and stories in front of community members wherever they are.
• Develop programming that demonstrates the museum’s value to the community.
• Continue to grow a reliable income stream that funds the museum’s endeavors.

Detailed reviews of the current building and surrounding property by architects, historical experts and the community, indicate the museum can be enhanced in a number of ways while maintaining the architectural form of the Carnegie Library building. The proposed additions to the building would be able to be removed in the future if deemed desirable, without damaging the original building.

Further enhancements would include correcting significant building code deficiencies and replace aging mechanical and electrical systems.

The following rendering shows the potential external additions to the building:

See the two areas marked “proposed.” The proposed area to the right presents a single-story  entrance that would replace the current set of stairs on the west side of the building that lead upward to the second floor as the building’s primary entrance. The entrance at the top of the stairs would, however, be retained and act as emergency exit.

The two-story addition on the east side of the building would replace the old wooden storage shed as well as two parking spaces for museum staff.

The existing brick plaza, bell tower in front of the museum and visitor center would not be impacted.

Note: the Edmonds Planning Department has already reviewed and preliminarily approved of the plan.

The photo below shows a preliminary layout of what the museum’s upper floor would encompass:

The proposed addition in blue would provide office spaces for the collections manager, the exhibit curator and volunteer/docents. An archive storage area would be added as well as a restroom on the upper level. Note the gray area to the right of the proposed research area.  This indicates where a new internal stairway would be added, which would more effectively tie the two floors together, making the museum feel like a single entity, rather than two museums on differing floors.

The photo below shows a preliminary layout of what the reimagined museum’s lower floor would include:

The proposed lower floor layout would include a presentation/theater area where a wide range of lectures, documentaries and films could be provided. The extension to the rear of the building would be a workshop and exhibit preparation area where revolving exhibits could be created without impacting the existing exhibits. Recently, a portion of the museum’s upper floor was shut down for six weeks so that the veterans exhibit could be carefully dismantled and removed, and the coffee and tea exhibit put in place.

Note that a children’s learning and exhibit space would also be added to provide historical education at an early age for our increasingly diverse population of students.

The  last photo below illustrates what the building would look like with the additions. The view is from southwest of the building.

The reimagining process is still in its early stages.  Realistically, this would be a three- to five-year capital project that will need the community’s support.

If you have input or thoughts regarding these initial plans, or if you would help make this transformation happen, you are invited to contact the Edmonds-South Snohomish County Historical Society at vicepresident@historicedmonds.org.