The Military Memorial Museum of Upper Cumberland
Restoration Update
February 2025
Our museum restoration project is now back on track after a couple of major additional repair expenses we had not counted on. At the end of last fall Holt Construction discovered a major load bearing beam at the front of the museum building was in much worse condition than they had originally anticipated. Our second “surprise” came when the Tennessee State electrical inspector made a visit to our building and declared our entire building would need to be rewired before they could allow us to reopen.
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The estimate for these two unexpected projects was $250,000. Way above our already stretched Phase One construction budget. Thankfully Mayor Foster and the County Commission came to our rescue voting to fund the additional monies needed to continue the work.
As we rolled into 2025 we are moving forward again. The structural repairs to the foundation continue but are very manpower intensive. Much of the digging under the first floor to pour footings and other stabilization measures is all being done by hand.
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We have recently had two other issues come up. The first is relocating part of the second floor HVAC system and the second being the repainting of the entire first floor after the construction is completed. The painting was removed from the original construction budget in order to save money and allow us to begin the restoration process. But now the time has come where it must be completed in order to reopen.
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Pending the success of our fund raising efforts for those items our current goal is to have the museum reopened by midsummer.
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Fund raising for Phase two – replacing the roof and Phase Three – creating usable space on the second floor for new display areas and storage will also begin midsummer.
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If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to our museum restoration fund you can click on the DONATE BUTTON at the top of this page. Your support is greatly appreciated.
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R/ Mark Pfaffenroth – MMMUC President