The Historical Construction Equipment Association broke ground on a new 2,500-square-foot archives and office building April 24. The new building is being built near the HCEA’s National Equipment Museum outside Bowling Green, Ohio.
Over the past 18 years, HCEA has amassed extensive archival collections of antique construction equipment, records, photographs and equipment manuals from more than 2,000 manufacturers, ranging from the late 1800s to the present.
While most of the collections are showcased in the organization’s museum, more space was needed to store the equipment and records that were not in the museum’s exhibits. The organization’s archives are currently scattered across five different locations, and the HCEA’s office is located in a cramped farmhouse. The new building will provide a climate controlled, environmentally stable storage facility for the equipment, and will also serve as extra offices for HCEA. The new archive area will also include the archivist’s office, which will serve as a reading room for researchers and a workroom for conservation and processing of records.
Because the archive/office building needed to be completed quickly, the project’s contractor had already erected the steel structure and was proceeding to work on the interior construction when the groundbreaking was held.
Construction of the new building is funded entirely by donations and grants. The formal dedication of the building is scheduled for November 20.
To find out more about the National Equipment Museum or the Historical Construction Equipment Association, click on the link to the right.
