ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
GROWING PAINS are forcing the Harrison Museum of African American Culture to move to bigger digs to house its diverse and still-growing collection of artifacts.
Behind the Harrison Museum of African American Culture is a vacant lot, wedged between a paved parking lot and a house, that was cleared of tall grass Tuesday, just before lunch.
By the end of the year, a building will fill the small lot - an annex that Aletha Bolden, the museum's executive director, hopes will solve all that has accompanied simple growing pains.
The museum is being squeezed out of the quarters it moved into in 1985. For lack of storage space, it has had to turn away donations of large collections and exhibits or delayed accepting them, Bolden said.
The museum will break ground today on an $89,400 annex.
"This will afford us an opportunity for our collection to continue to grow," Bolden said. "We are at our fullest capacity right now. Once [the annex opens], we will be able to receive those donations that are on hold."
In 1994, 30,000 artifacts were excavated from a site in historic Gainsboro - old bottles from the pharmacy of Dr. Isaac D. Burrell, glass and earthenware marbles, reed for a pipe organ. Archaeologists wanted to donate the items - stored in 88 boxes - to the museum.
"We had no way to store any of those," Bolden said. "We still wanted to accept the donation and thought at the time, 'Right now we need to try to find resources to help build a new facility.'''
The museum applied for and received a $10,000 grant from the Richmond-based Beirne Carter Foundation and $77,300 in Community Development Block Grant funds from the city of Roanoke. A small part of the cost will be covered by donations, Bolden said.
The museum is housed in the old Harrison School. Built in 1916, the school has been designated a historic landmark. That designation prohibits the construction of any additions to the building, Bolden said.
"We had to find other means to house our memorabilia and our collections," she said.
The museum's permanent collection has grown in nearly 11 years from two boxes of materials to, in part, more than 4,000 black-and-white photographs; 400 pieces of African art and artifacts that include books, jewelry, sculptures and musical instruments; and medical instruments, doctors' bags and records from the early 1900s from the old Burrell Memorial Hospital. The museum also has medical equipment and uniforms from the old Hunton Life Saving Crew - one of the nation's earliest black rescue squads, established in 1941.
The annex "will help with our cataloging and cross-referencing," Bolden said. "We want to become an institution that can provide research capabilities for books, papers, theses.
"It won't be immediate; it's going to take some time. It's a big task, but this will be a start."
Acorn Construction Ltd. in Troutville has been hired to build the annex, she said. Construction is expected to be completed in four to five months.
"The need is out there for Harrison to serve the community," Bolden said.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN SPEARMAN Staff Aletha Bolden, the museum'sby CNBexecutive director, stands on the site of the museum's future
addition with a ceremonial mask from Tanganyika, a formerly
independent African republic that is now part of Tanzania. color.