From the Tannenberg to the opening,
a story in video
We started the year at the History Center hunkered down for our move to a new building. We closed all of our sites to the public as we planned and packed. After a series of fits and starts, construction moved rapidly toward what we hoped would be a late spring opening. Late spring became early summer before construction crews and contractors finished their work, we celebrated with donors at our gala and members received their first peek inside. As 2024 comes to a close and with 2025 just around the corner, we thought it might be a good time look back at some of the milestones of our $31 million project that brought a state-of-the-art museum to York County and created a new home for the History Center.
As we take this journey together, know that we are grateful for so many of you that gave so generously to us — gave time, talent and treasure to make this project a true community triumph. The videos here that help tell this story were produced by the team from Hayman Studio, and we appreciate the creativity and care they brought to the work. There’s also one video here produced by Paul Kuehnel of the York Daily Record/Sunday News, who covered the move of the Library and Archives in April.
September 2022: The first step
The Tannenberg organ is probably one of the best-known items in our collection. We have had the organ since 1945, and it was played regularly during public organ concerts since the 1980s. In September of 2022, Brunner and Associates, an organ restoration company based in Lancaster, spent three days in the Historical Society building taking the organ apart and loading the pieces into trucks to begin the work of restoring the 220-year-old instrument. The disassembly was the first real sign that we were embarking on a journey that would lead to a new home. Ryan Hayman and his team were here to chronicle the work. And, by the way, we expect to have the fully restored Tannenberg in its third-floor home in February.
February 2024: Building toward transformation
After more than 18 months of construction, work on the new museum began to pick up steam. We brought Ryan and his team back in to show the progress from the vision that was on display in the early animated rendering to scenes from inside the building as the work was happening. The spaces were finally starting to look like what staff, board members, architects and exhibit designers envisioned at the beginning.
March 2024: The Conestoga Wagon on the road again
We started the complex process of moving our largest artifacts into their new home in late 2023. The massive A-frame Ammonia Compressor was first, followed by the Pullman Opera car and a handful of other macro artifacts. The Conestoga Wagon, an iconic symbol of Pennsylvania’s key role commerce in early America, was carefully moved in early 2024. Crews from Kinsley Construction loaded the wagon on the back of a flatbed trailer, which then rumbled down Pershing Avenue to the new museum.
April 2024: Relocating 300 years of history
The staff of the Library and Archives spent months packing archives files into boxes, mapping which boxes needed to go on which shelves in the new archives and planning for the actual move. The move took almost two weeks to execute, and the Daily Record’s Paul Kuehnel covered the move with this multimedia story that has video, still photos and interviews with key players.
November 2024: One chapter ends, another begins
This video tells the complete story of the History Center’s new museum project, from identifying the initial need to right-size the organization into a new building in a new location, to raising money through a capital campaign; from designing and building to exhibit design and installation; and finally, from opening the new museum to communicating the History Center’s aspiration to make York a visitor destination for central Pennsylvania.
