Wise County Heritage Museum

The grandiose building that sits at the south end of Trinity Street in Decatur is deceptively quiet. Once the home of Decatur Baptist College, it is now the Wise County Heritage Museum owned by the Wise County Historical Society, Inc.

Today the museum is alive with the activity of preserving Wise County's past. The museum is the headquarters for the Wise County Historical Commission and the Wise County Historical Society, Inc. Together they educate citizens about the past through presentations and through the museum, which is kept in operation by donations, admissions, sales from the gift shop and various fund-raising events through the year. Members attend conferences and work to keep the archives updated.

In the last 13 years, with your generosity through donations, visitations to the Museum, and buying gifts from our gift shop, we have been able to make many new improvements to this majestic building.

The windows in the auditorium have been replaced with new windows that really make a huge improvement to the looks of the building inside and out. They have been painted a brown color that makes them stand out from the other windows which we hope to replace after the completion of the auditorium.

Our next projects will be the walls. The wall behind the stage on the south has been repaired and painted. It looks so nice and makes the stage look so different. The heightening of the railing and painting around the balcony is completed. If we have an overflow in the auditorium or if people would like to sit on the balcony, we are thinking about letting people sit up there for $12.00; audiorium seating will be $10.00. We have the estimates to repair the north wall and the east wall. Work on these two walls should begin in the next couple of weeks. We will have to replenish our money after this project is completed to finish the West wall. When this is done, we will like the floor on stage and auditorium and maybe some new curtains.

Your donations and generosity the last years have helped us to renovate and renew the building toward its magnificant grandeur of the past.

If you haven't visited the museum lately to see the many projects going on, please take time to do so. There are small and large projects as well. We are painting, reorganizing rooms, and working on the flower beds to help beautify every aspect of the majestic building.

Our upcoming events will help to advance the restoration of the museum building and the auditorium. Again we ask for your participation in this effort. If you would like to make a contribution toward these projects, it would be greatly appreciated. Please favorably consider our request and make a donation to the Wise County Heritage Museum today!!