The Bath School Museum Committee is embarking on a monumental project to build a new Bath School Museum (which you can help be a part of by donating!). The projected location for the new museum is in James Couzens Memorial Park, located across from the Bath Elementary and Middle School.
The Museum Committee is actively working with Bath Schools and Bath Township officials to make this a reality. The Museum Committee has hired THA Architects to design the initial plans for the new museum.
Rendering of proposed museum
The Museum Committee came up with the idea of a museum after reviewing how we see the museum and its legacy moving forward. The idea started as a way to preserve and protect the cupola. The cupola sat on top of the consolidated school, which opened in 1922. It survived the disaster 5 years later, then stayed atop the school until it was torn down in the 1970’s. The cupola now sits in James Couzens Memorial Park as a memorial to those who died as a result of the disaster.
The goal for the new museum is to provide a building that not only has the necessary space to house all the current exhibits, but also to be a building that is used by the community and other visitors from outside of Bath. Therefore, the building is designed to be multi-functional with flexible exhibit spaces that have the ability to be
closed to create small gathering spaces, or opened up and combined to accommodate large events, depending on the current function needs. A meeting room and catering kitchen are also attached to the large flexible space, which will allow the new museum to host various types of events, such as the annual Golden Alumni Reunion, or possibly rent the space to the community.
The new Bath School Museum lobby will serve a dual purpose as an initial gathering space for all visitors upon entering the museum, as well as the museum’s first exhibit. The original school building’s cupola, the only remaining architectural artifact that survived the Bath School disaster, will be relocated from its existing into the new building’s lobby, so it can be restored and preserved as the museum’s main exhibit. The building will not only contain permanent exhibits related to the disaster and the school’s alumni, but it will also include space for traveling and temporary exhibits, offering a new and exciting experience each visit.
Full report