Exhibit-building begins at renovated Tupper Lake History Museum
Dan McClelland
by Dan McClelland
With many of the interior renovations completed at the Tupper Lake History Museum, the volunteer board members are now turning their attention to exhibit-arranging and exhibit-building.
This week the directors have started to move artifacts in storage in their Amish-built shed outside and elsewhere around town into the renovated building.
The plan is to position artifacts where they will eventually be exhibited and then incorporate them into the exhibits built around them. It’s part of the museum board’s current organizational scheme.
Two of the three interior rooms have been completely renovated since early fall.
The primary builder has been Board Member Jimmy “Cookie” Lanthier, who has devoted hundreds of hours of his carpentry talents to the major chore.
He’s been a one-man building crew since last summer.
Just before he took a trip overseas to Scandinavia to visit friends he finished up the great room in what was likely service bays in the former gas station.
The room features a beautiful tongue and groove pine ceiling, that Mr. Lanthier stained a honey shade.
The ceiling features two large fans and several dozen tiny inset lights- some of which will be pointed directly on the coming exhibits.
Before he single-handedly constructed the ceiling, he thoroughly insulated the entire attic area. Mr. Lanthier also stripped the walls of the large room, firred them out and insulated them before affixing new sheetrock, after most of the building was completely rewired.
After finishing the sheetrock, Mr. Lanthier installed a half wall of wainscoting around the room’s perimeter, topping it with cherry rail. The room is very impressive and ten feet high, providing plenty of wall space to hang photos and other museum artifacts.
The museum board recently retained Brandon Moeller to install a new vinyl laminate flooring in the room. The flooring material was provided below wholesale cost by Tupper Lake Supply Co.
Before the flooring could be laid, there was a recessed section of the concrete floor that had to be filled, and that project, done by hand-mixing cement, was tackled by museum volunteer, Bob “Popcorn” Duhaime, last fall. A remarkable chore for a nonagenarian!
Last summer Mr. Lanthier devoted considerable attention to the redecorating of the middle room in the building, which will be the main entrance area where guests will enter through a newly repaired front glass door. The center room is dressed in various types of wood- to reflect this community’s lumbering heritage.
The only area of the building still to receive a face-lift is the former beauty salon on the western end. Mr. Lanthier has repaired the main bow window there- and work in that now cordoned off section of the building will be tackled over the winter, as exhibits rise in the other two rooms.
Related improvement chores like painting and replacing ceiling tiles have been tackled in the building over the by a number of museum volunteers including Mary Richer, Bob Duhaime, Joe Kimpflen, Diane Connor, Jeannette Keniston, Tom and Marlene Hyde and the Hyde Fuel crew and others.
The museum board is looking to have the new community showpiece open briefly for the Total Eclipse weekend on April 6, 7 and 8 to familiarize what is expected to be a full house of celestial fans coming for the event with the community’s heritage.
The museum will then close for several more months to get it ready for an opening early this summer, and a grand opening celebration event then.
The Tupper Lake History Museum continues to accept donations to fund the work of the directors as they ready their new place. Gifts may be sent to P.O. Box 824. All contributions are tax-deductible as the museum organization won IRS 501-3c tax exempt status last year.