The Gibsonville Museum and Historical Society has a new home, the former Lions Club at 200 Steele Street.
The group has been largely homeless for the past four years, with no fixed address to showcase the town’s former textile-oriented history.
The town’s aldermen unanimously approved a rezoning for the property Monday night that will allow the museum’s board of directors to set up displays and open the building for tourists.
Deleno Flynn, the town’s former long-time town manager and president of the group, told the aldermen that the group has plans to “renovate [the building] completely.”
The group is hoping to be able to get a grant to expand the building, which Flynn acknowledged “won’t be as big as we want.”
In his comments, on which he elaborated in an interview two days later, Flynn pointed to the fact that the neighboring town of Whitsett was able to secure a $300,000 grant for its historical museum, prompting Flynn to hope the Gibsonville group would enjoy similar success.
He said he hopes to expand the 900 square feet of usable space in the Steele Street building.
Meanwhile, replacing flooring, lights, windows, and doors is the current thrust of the group’s renovation efforts.
Flynn said the group will also plan to use the former “stew hut” behind the building, which is at the corner of Steele and Second streets.
Flynn told the aldermen that traffic would be “fairly minimal.” When the group previously had its own digs, behind the ABC store in downtown Gibsonville, it was open on the first Saturday each month, Flynn recalled in an interview. He hopes the new building can be open on most Saturdays, when the renovations are complete.
Flynn expressed the hope that the museum could open by the “first of the year or early spring.”
Flynn had for many years allowed the group to use the back portion behind the building that housed the local ABC store, which he owned and rented to the statewide liquor organization. However, after ABC bought the building from him four years ago, they ultimately forced the museum out.
No one from the public sought to speak during the public hearing before the aldermen voted 5-0 for the limited office zoning for the property.
