It’s been almost three years since a devastating fire consumed half of the Orange Grove Area Museum. Now, they are asking for help.
Standing inside the Orange Grove Area Museum used to take you back in time, but now it takes you back to 2022 when a fire destroyed half of the building and some of the artifacts in it.
“It was devastating. It was a punch in the gut for the community,” Ernest Henderson, who has been the Orange Grove Area Museum Board president for more than 20 years said.
“We lost a lot of irreplaceable items for our museum. And we lost our building as well. It was a total loss,” Henderson said.
The probable cause of the fire, Henderson said, was an electrical short in the back of the building.
They lost the military room, displays on churches and wagons, and much more valuable items.
Once the smoke settled they began the plan to rebuild, but still haven’t collected enough funds.
Henderson said the insurance money went into the electrical work on the portion of the remaining museum and the survey of the exterior wall, to name a few things.