Executive Director Issues VMH Statement

SLCHS Photo: View inside of the Veterans Memorial Hall Museum

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

As the Executive Director of the St. Louis County Historical Society, I want to share with our community the details of an event that has prompted the closure of Veterans Memorial Hall and the Albert J. Amatuzio Research Center for the immediate future. I want to ensure that the community is aware of what is happening, and what will be happening in the future with these spaces.

On Wednesday, July 10th, the spaces occupied by Veterans Memorial Hall (VMH) and the Albert J. Amatuzio Research Center (AJARC) were inundated with water. Thanks to the initiative of the Minnesota Ballet and St. Louis County, staff and board members of the St. Louis County Historical Society were quickly informed and arrived on the scene to assess the situation. Staff worked quickly and diligently to ensure that artifacts and displays were quickly moved into secure storage locations. During our initial movement of artifacts, it seems only two historic/archival items were impacted by water, along with a few empty archive boxes. The display cases and archive boxes did their job of protecting their priceless contents.

While the historic pieces of our collection are largely unscathed, the same unfortunately cannot be said for the exhibit infrastructure within Veterans Memorial Hall. By the time we had arrived, display case bases had absorbed water, and the wood exhibit walls showed similar water damage along with a fully inundated carpet. In the interest of the long-term health of any collection items that will be staged in the space in the future, we made the decision to remove most of the interior furnishings of Veterans Memorial Hall.

So, where does that leave us at this point?

The Society is working with St. Louis County, whose staff have been an incredible support during this challenging event. Dehumidification of the spaces began immediately Wednesday night and was completed without issue. We have begun the lengthy process of determining costs and the work required to ensure that VMH will be up and running to continue the mission of preserving and sharing the stories of Northeast Minnesota’s Veteran community. We are hopeful that AJARC materials can be returned to their original space soon. More than getting VMH back to what it was, we are looking further ahead to what we can improve and refine, to make the best of this hand we have been dealt. We will be reviewing what stories we want to tell, what artifacts to exhibit, how to make the most of our space, and more in the coming days and weeks.

I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude for the incredibly hardworking teams at ServPro for their expertise in stabilizing the affected spaces. The Depot staff and our fellow tenants have been incredibly supportive during this incident as well. My biggest thanks, without a doubt, go to the SLCHS staff, who have been diligent, resourceful, and have more than stepped up to the occasion. I count myself incredibly fortunate to have such an incredible team.

While we continue walking this long path, please keep an eye on our social media channels for updates. The work will be substantial, and for an organization like us, the support of our community is vital to ensuring that we achieve our goal. If you are a member of the Society already, we thank you for your support. If you are not a member but are sympathetic to our mission, your support is needed now more than ever. Your help will ensure the timeliness of the restoration, and you will gain the unique perspective of seeing an exhibit space come back to life in real time.

If you can contribute financially to Veterans Memorial Hall during this disaster, we welcome your support. Your support will help us preserve and present the history of Northeast Minnesota’s Veterans, servicemembers who have given so much of their own lives to support us. Now is the time to give back, to help us ensure that their stories are preserved, and shared with our community for generations to come. Thank you for taking the time to read this substantial message. If you, or someone you know, has questions regarding the situation or about how you can support Veterans Memorial Hall at this time, please feel free to reach out to me at nick@thehistorypeople.org.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Jensen, Executive Director

St. Louis County Historical Society

Donate to Support Veterans Memorial Hall and the Albert J. Amatuzio Research Center. https://www.givemn.org/donate/St-Louis-County-Historical-Society