Museum expansion could double Moody Countys historical space

Families searching for information about their history, local school kids eager to learn more about their community and region, and visitors curious about Moody County may soon have even more opportunities to explore the areas past.
At their recent annual meeting, Moody County Historical Society Board President Susan Ahlers gave members a sneak peek at an exciting expansion project that could nearly double the museums size a change that has been a long time in coming.
Founded in 1956, the Historical Society built what was then a new museum on the east side of Flandreau in 1964. Its first expansion was in 1968. It remained the same until 2014, when the museum underwent several upgrades, including new lighting, floor coverings, and a new pitched roof with steel wall coverings.
Plans are now in motion for some fairly significant upgrades through the SDSU engineering department and its School of Design.
Eight students and their professor recently visited the museum and its grounds, where each created a design for expanding the museum and developing the surrounding area. The opportunity has turned into a class project.
Copies of the students designs were handed out at the annual meeting and are now on display at the museum.
Taking the best of what the students came up with, an overall proposed plan now calls for expanding the museum by adding to its north side, with a new entrance and parking lot on the west end. Access to the museum would be off Pipestone Avenue.
More room is needed for displays and programming, and other planned improvements to the museum grounds will provide better access and use of the whole area. We are really excited and anxious to get started, said Ahlers.
Ahlers cautions, everything remains in very preliminary stages and there is a lot of work to do before the board plans to move forward with anything.
A design/build firm from Brookings has offered to refine the preliminary SDSU designs, creating a more detailed plan with construction cost estimates.
Once the final plan fits within the proposed construction budget and is approved by the Board, the Historical Society will be ready to kick off a fundraising campaign, hopefully later this year.