Old Broken Arrow hospital building to house military museum

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The Museum of Military History, which focuses on Oklahoma connections to U.S. wars since 1861, will begin its move from Tulsa to Broken Arrow as soon as crews finish renovating its new home in the old Franklin Hospital building, museum Acting Director Beth Cordingley said.

The city bought the building at 112 N. Main St. from the Broken Arrow school district earlier this year and approved final designs for the renovation last week.

The $300,000 project, funded by a tax increment financing district, began in early spring and is expected to be finished around the end of the year, architect Steve Olsen said.

Jan. 1 "is sort of our long-range goal because it's going to take some time," Cordingley said. "Having been a hospital, of course, it has lots of rooms and lots of walls, so the main thing is knocking a lot of them down."

The 7,000-square-foot building is a significant improvement over the museum's current 3,000-square-foot building at 6953 S. 66th East Ave., she said.

The extra space will allow more of the museum's 2,000 artifacts to be displayed at once, Cordingley said. The collection contains items from the Civil War to the Persian Gulf War, and every item has an Oklahoma connection.

Most will be displayed in large rooms dedicated to each branch of the military. Displays will also rotate to a glass "storefront" that is planned near the Main Street entrance, Cordingley said.

Other additions include a research library and multiple large meeting rooms to house classes for children and veterans, as well as meetings for veterans groups, she said.

Veterans classes will include creative workshops to encourage them to write about their war experiences or communicate them through painting, she said.

"We will eventually serve all of Oklahoma and eventually the region," Cordingley said.

"We hope that (the museum) will be a destination for people to come and research and see things they can't find anywhere else."

The museum still needs about $100,000 for personnel and moving costs, including salaries for a permanent director and curator.

Grants and donations will be sought to fill the positions before January, and membership fees will help cover expenses after the museum opens, Cordingley said.

A furniture company has already offered to donate items for offices and meeting rooms, which will save about $20,000 in moving expenses, she said.

The museum was founded by retired Air Force Col. Robert W. Powell, and its mission is to promote patriotism, Cordingley said.

The Franklin Hospital building once held Broken Arrow's first modern hospital.

Its renovation is being funded by the FlightSafety TIF district, which dedicates $6 million to revitalizing downtown.

The city agreed to buy the building in exchange for the Broken Arrow school district's agreement not to oppose the creation of the TIF district.

The sale price was lowered from $423,900 to $287,500 after the city agreed to spend $136,400 to improve a parking lot that will be used for the museum and the school district's nearby Central on Main facility.

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Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com

Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/articlepath.aspx?articleid=20120929_12_A15_CUTLIN568948&rss_lnk=12

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