After flooding forced a shutdown, the Texas Energy Museum in Beaumont reopens with updated exhibits and a commitment to modernizing its historic collection.
BEAUMONT, Texas — After months of cleanup and repairs following major flooding caused by a burst pipe, the Texas Energy Museum in Beaumont has reopened its doors to the public. Museum staff say the unexpected closure last summer ultimately became an opportunity to refresh exhibits and begin modernizing parts of the collection.
The museum shut down last July after a burst pipe caused extensive flooding inside the building, forcing staff to address damage and protect historical materials stored at the facility.
“This whole wall, it came to the ceiling and it was like running down,” said Yolanda Perez, an educator at the Texas Energy Museum, describing the extent of the flooding.
Officials said protecting the museum’s historical artifacts and archives was a priority during the repairs. The collection includes rare materials documenting the region’s oil and energy history.
“We have old books, we have old oil land maps, we have photographs, film, so those kinds of things. Humidity is extremely damaging to those objects and we we want to keep them for forever,” said Christle Feagin, executive director of the Texas Energy Museum.
Repairs were further delayed after construction crews discovered asbestos inside the building, requiring additional work before restoration could continue.
“It did go on quite some time because they found asbestos, so we had to do an abatement so that pushes further behind,” Perez said.
Despite the setbacks, museum staff used the downtime to update parts of the visitor experience. Some exhibits damaged by the flooding were replaced with updated displays and new educational materials.
“We’ve had a few little setbacks but we didn’t let it stop us,” Perez said.
What started as a major setback is now part of the museum’s comeback— refreshing parts of the experience that visitors see today.
Perez said several exhibits were upgraded during the closure.
“We had a few exhibitions that were damaged unfortunately and we just upgraded them with new literature,” she said.
Staff also began work on additional improvements that visitors will see in the coming months.
“We took it as a chance to refresh that back wall and so coming soon because we’re working on the exhibition as we speak and so this simple distillation system has been upgraded here as well,” Perez said.
Behind the scenes, the museum is also working to bring its collection into the digital age by digitizing archives and making them accessible online.
“We have a lot of it that isn’t digitized so we can publish it online. We’ll also eventually have our library online as well,” Perez said.
Museum leaders say while some improvements are still underway, they are excited to welcome visitors back as work continues to preserve and showcase the region’s energy history.