DE PERE (NBC 26) — After more than a decade of planning and fundraising, De Pere's nearly two-century-old history museum is getting an upgrade and expansion.
De Pere Historical Society president McKim Boyd told NBC 26 Wednesday they've raised $4.6 million to completely revamp and expand White Pillars Museum.
"It's exciting," Boyd said. "I mean, the crazy thing is that this fundraising effort probably started back in 2013. They actually had one failed attempt at it back in 2014 [or] 2015 and then we were able to resurrect it."
White Pillars Museum has been around since 1838 and is on the National Register of Historic Places — but the small building does not have the space to host school groups or the Historical Society's full collections.
That could change, after the planned expansion from 1,000 square feet to nearly 6,000 square feet.
"The amount that we're raising will allow us to open up not only the new building, but open up more extended hours and have more community interaction from within the building," Boyd said.
Boyd says the society recently received a $500,000 donation for the groundbreaking, but still needs about $700,000 to fully fund the $5.3 million project.
The current White Pillars Museum is only open by appointment, on select days of the week — but Boyd says the future version will offer both youth and adult education programs.
The old building will soon be removed from where it sits now to be refurbished, then returned to the site.
"The new facility will house the restored portion of the building, and then give us all these additional spaces that we'll be able to use for continued research, continued development, and also a huge added storage area so we can bring all our collections under one roof," Boyd said.
A groundbreaking on the expansion project is planned for June 18 at 11 a.m. Boyd says all are welcome to attend.
