YOUNGSTOWN Arms Museum plans barrier-free project

All of the funding for the project comes from private sources.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- By August, the Arms Family Museum of Local History will be barrier-free.
Construction is slated to begin March 1 on a $131,500 project that will include installation of a wheelchair lift, relocation of the public entrance, and retrofitting restrooms so that they are accessible to visitors in wheelchairs, said H. William Lawson, director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.
The society operates the museum and the society's archival library, housed in the carriage house behind the museum.
Lawson; MVHS president William J. Cleary; and Paul Ricciuti, architect, were to announce the project today.
Because the Arms Family Museum is a historic structure, it could be have been exempted from laws that require all public buildings to be accessible, Lawson said of the stone mansion, built for the Arms family in 1905. "This is something we wanted to do so that the museum would be accessible to everyone," he stressed.
1996 study
A study completed in 1996 suggested the public entrance to the museum be moved to the rear of the building, where a grade-level doorway will replace a set of windows in the kitchen porch, Lawson said.
The study also suggested installing an elevator, "but we didn't want to disrupt the flow of the building. That's why we're installing a smaller lift -- a 'Lift-avator' -- that's a cross between an elevator and a chair lift," Lawson explained.
The Lift-avator is about a quarter of the size of a typical elevator, so very little floor space will be lost inside the museum. Rooms that will be affected by installation are a storeroom/office in the basement, a room used as a lounge for tour guides on the first floor, and a second-floor bathroom. No architectural changes to the exterior of the building are necessary to accommodate the lift.
Relocating the public entrance to the kitchen porch will save wear and tear in the main hallway inside the house and will be a more efficient way for visitors to access the museum from the parking lot, he said.
In addition to serving as a reception-admissions area, the kitchen porch will serve as a gift shop. Currently the museum operates a gift table, but there is no place for a gift shop, Lawson said.
As is, only the first floor of the museum is barrier-free. The archival library has been barrier-free since it was renovated about 20 years ago.
Funding for project
Funding for the project comes from The John and Doris Andrews Fund -- Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley and the Ward Beecher Foundation, which provided lead gifts of $50,000 each, and many local foundations, businesses and individuals. Fund raising began about a year and a half ago.
The MVHS Board of Trustees is also considering bids for several smaller projects, such as landscaping, that will enhance the primary construction project, Lawson said. Those projects would require about $88,500 more to complete.
kubik@vindy.com