Multi-year renovation work begins at Fort Smith Museum of History

The first phase of a multi-year major renovation project at the Fort Smith Museum of History in downtown Fort Smith began Monday (June 9) with work on the building’s exterior.

The City of Fort Smith issued an $800,000 building permit to the Old Commissary Museum Association May 22 for renovation work to the museum’s building at 320 Rogers Ave.

Total cost for the entire project is estimated to be around $6 million and take about five years.

The Fort Smith Museum of History was established in 1910 as the Old Commissary Museum with the purpose of saving the city’s oldest building from demolition. That building, the Commissary building, is now restored and is part of the nearby Fort Smith National Historic Site. In 1979, the museum moved to its location in the 1906 Atkinson-Williams Warehouse building.

“We are beginning a renovation project at the museum. It’s a multi-year, phased project. The first phase is the exterior of the building – to improve and stabilize many elements of the structure,” said Caroline Speir, executive director of the museum.

Phase One of the project includes the outside of the building. Work began Monday on the building’s cornices. Nicodemus Sheet Metal and Fabrication of Fort Smith began scraping rust off the cornices this week, Speir said. The cornices, which are original to the building, will be scraped, repaired, primed and painted.

“They are about halfway through with that. You don’t realize how bad something is until they start working on it, and you see the difference,” Speir said.

The entire process will help preserve the building as much as renovate, she said. The large windows on the north and east side of the building are also being repaired and reglazed. All of the remaining windows in the building will be replaced, said.

“With it being a historic building, we are having to work with the state and national commissions on all the renovations,” Speir said.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Speir noted that it was the museum’s largest artifact. Planned work on the exterior also includes tuck pointing repair on the west side of the building over the next few months.

“Tuck pointing is original to the building. We just need to do some repair. The west side is the side that endures most of the hard weather,” Speir said.

Other exterior work will include working upgrades to the existing parking lot and perhaps a new roof. Replacing the 1982 elevator in the building will also be part of Phase One work.

“We are going to modernize the elevator. It will be a nice smooth ride. You will not hear the creaky cable whenever it is operating,” Speir said.

The elevator replacement is expected to take about six weeks. That work is planned for January, at which time the museum may be closed for the work.

“January is typically a slow time for us, but we have not decided yet on whether to close,” Speir said.

In total, phase one of the renovation is estimated to cost about $1.6 million. The museum has raised about 50% of its capital campaign for first phase renovations. First National Bank of Fort Smith donated $100,000 to the campaign, and there have been other donations along with grants and tax credits, Speir said.

“The city helped out by waiving the building permit fees,” she said. “And we are applying for more grants and tax credits.”

A second phase will include putting a new heat and air system in the building, and phase three will be reorganization and possible expansion of exhibits, Speir said, noting that new exhibits may be added.

“The exterior work and heat and air system aren’t the things that will be noticed as much. But when we get to the exhibits, people will get excited about that I think,” she said.

That portion also will likely take the longest because museum personnel will have to inventory and reorganize the 40,000 artifacts in the museum, she said.