Staff photo by Fritz Busch Wade Soine of SP Windows of Burnsville caulks a window at the Brown County Historical Society Museum Wednesday. Brown County commissioners approved SP Windows’ $343,726 low bid for new windows on the museum’s first and mezzanine levels in January. The project includes a $269,088 Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grant with a $91,891 cash/in-kind match.

Staff photo by Fritz Busch
Wade Soine of SP Windows of Burnsville caulks a window at the Brown County Historical Society Museum Wednesday. Brown County commissioners approved SP Windows’ $343,726 low bid for new windows on the museum’s first and mezzanine levels in January. The project includes a $269,088 Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grant with a $91,891 cash/in-kind match.

Brown County commissioners approved SP Windows of Burnsville’s $343,726 base bid in January. Below the project’s budget estimate, the work includes a $269,088 Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grant with a $91,891 cash/in-kind match approved Nov. 19 by commissioners.

The window project is part of an effort to continue preservation of the museum and its contents.

“It’s a beautiful building. As with any building, you have to maintain it. The windows are in disrepair,” New Ulm Mayor Kathleen Backer told commissioners in November. “In addition to preventing water and insects from entering the building, there are long-term benefits for completing the restoration project. Brown County owns the museum that was formerly the New Ulm Post Office.”

Backer wrote a museum grant application for phase 4 of the restoration project that included $769,566 in grants and $246,539 in matching funds.

She told commissioners the grants support Brown County’s responsibility to preserve the iconic 1910 New Ulm Post Office building placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Backer said water is entering the museum through damaged window seals and frames. She said the renovation work does not affect the local tax levy. The first three phases of the project included repairing brick walls and third floor window restoration.

Backer said museum restoration assures the BCHS has suitable space for museum operation plus storage and management of its extensive collections including more than 15,000 artifacts related to Brown County history.

She said phase 5 of museum restoration will include basement, first and second floor masonry work.