Jacksonville African American History Museum will reopen in about a week, following renovations on the almost-200-year-old building.

Renovations started March 1 to add a new security system, refinish wood floors and fix damage to the historic building’s roof, walls and some of the foundations on the second level. 

“We had a lot of leakage in (the roof),” said Alberta Robinson, the museum’s managing director. “… There was a big portion of it that had rotted through from over the years and just gotten worse with wind damage.”

The museum at 859 Grove St. opened in 2022 in what also is known at the Asa Talcott House. Talcott was an abolitionist in Jacksonville during the 1830s.

There won’t be many new additions to the museum, Robinson said, but there are plans to shoot a video tour of the upstairs that will be displayed on the first floor.

“This isn’t a handicap-accessible building, and a lot of people can’t climb the stairs,” Robinson said. “They haven’t seen what’s up there so they’ll be able to sit here and view it.”

There likely will be a new exhibit at some point as part of the museum’s partnership with Illinois College, museum board member Brittney Yancy said. Yancy, who also is the college’s African American Studies program coordinator, said IC gives the museum a grant every year for a summer intern who curates an exhibit. Last year, the student-made exhibit was about activist Malcolm X.

“Our intern has to focus on some theme looking at early African history, and we proposed a project that looks at freedom seeking in Jacksonville,” Yancy said.

Visitors to the museum now will be greeted by a new monument to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that sits at the front of the museum, said Ruth Linear, founding director of the museum. The monument was donated by Spirit of Faith church.

“It used to be, years ago, out at the Community Park; it was the first statue they had at Community Park, if I’m not wrong,” Robinson said. “And then they ended up getting a brand new statue of Martin Luther King Jr.”

The museum will reopen June 6. Hours will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. It will close for the season at the end of September.

“One big other major job we’d love to get done this summer is to freshen the building up on the outside, repaint it some,” Robinson said. “But you know that sometimes comes with costs, so we’re hoping that we’ll have enough in our budget, and maybe with hopefully some more donations, that we can get that done before the summer’s over with.”