The Tellus Science Museum constructing winks by means of a cluster of tall timber alongside I-75 close to Exit 293. It hits the attention just like the prow of a proud ship. The constructing hints on the treasures displayed inside it, and different treasures in Cartersville, a metropolis lower than an hour’s drive north of Atlanta that has collected a cluster of bizarre museums.
“Cartersville is dwelling to … a number of the Atlanta space’s most fascinating museums,” mentioned Meredith Dollevoet, gross sales and advertising supervisor on the Cartersville-Bartow County Conference & Guests Bureau.
Issues actually began, Dollevoet mentioned, when a bunch of native enterprise house owners bought collectively and determined they wanted a spot to point out artworks they’d gathered to the general public. “The Sales space Museum was opened in 2003 as a solution to share their artwork collections with the neighborhood and to supply instructional alternatives,” she mentioned.
That was simply the beginning. The group fashioned the non-profit Georgia Museums, Inc., and in 2009, opened the Tellus Science Museum as an enlargement of a constructing then generally known as the Weinman Mineral Museum. Different museums adopted, with Georgia Museums now answerable for the Bartow Historical past Museum and a associated entity that operates the Grand Theatre in downtown Cartersville.
The newest addition to the group’s assortment, the Savoy Car Museum, opened in December 2021. “It shows not solely a number of the benefactors’ non-public assortment, but additionally an array of cars in rotating momentary exhibitions that showcase the historical past and variety of the car,” Dollevoet mentioned.
The gathering of museums attracts vacationers and a focus to town. In reality, Smithsonian Journal included Cartersville as one of many 15 Greatest Small Cities to Go to in 2022.
“In a nutshell, Cartersville grew to become Georgia’s Museum Metropolis as a result of a bunch of beneficiant businessmen wished to offer again to the neighborhood by means of their love and appreciation of artwork, historical past, science, schooling, and now, vehicles,” Dollevoet mentioned.
Sales space Western Artwork Museum
The Sales space Museum, named for Sam Sales space, a good friend and mentor to the founders, boasts a everlasting assortment of the artwork of the American west, Civil Struggle artwork and presidential portraits and letters, permitting guests to “See America’s Story” in work, sculpture, pictures and artifacts. The Sales space additionally options Sagebrush Ranch, a hands-on expertise and interactive kids’s gallery.
“The museum has develop into an necessary attraction since opening in Cartersville, being the world’s largest everlasting exhibition house for Western artwork, and it’s the largest museum of its variety within the Southeast,” mentioned Grace Adams, director of promoting at Sales space Western Artwork Museum.
With 120,000 sq. toes of house, the Sales space is a good measurement to see in a day, however affords greater than sufficient to make extra journeys worthwhile, Adams mentioned. “Short-term reveals are modified each three to 4 months in 4 galleries, leading to 12 to fifteen exhibitions per yr, probably the most in any Georgia artwork museum,” she mentioned.
Greater than 800,000 individuals have visited the Sales space Museum because it opened. “In 2019, Sales space achieved its highest degree of attendance with over 68,000 guests,” Adams reported. The museum presently has about 1,600 members.
Because it’s grown in recognition, the Sales space Museum has additionally obtained many awards, “together with being named Greatest Artwork Museum by USA Immediately 10Best Readers’ Alternative award program in 2020, 2021 and 2022,” Adams identified. The method entails a panel of specialists partnered with editors at 10Best to select the preliminary nominees, and the highest 10 have been decided by well-liked vote.
Sales space Western Artwork Museum, 501 Museum Dr., Cartersville, Ga. 30120, 770-387-1300, boothmuseum.org
Open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; and Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Admission is $13 for adults; $11 for seniors, 65+; $10 for college students; and free for kids 12 and underneath.
Tellus Science Museum
The Tellus Science Museum is an enlargement of the previous Weinman Mineral Museum, in line with Shelly Redd, Director of Advertising on the Tellus Science Museum.
“The Weinman Museum was one of many few choices academics had for geology discipline journeys for college students,” she mentioned. “Nevertheless, the 9,000-square-foot museum couldn’t accommodate the excessive demand for instructional actions. Finally the museum was turning away extra college students than they have been capable of serve and that’s when the choice was made to develop the museum and the providers we provide.”
It has grown to 120,000 sq. toes with 4 everlasting galleries: The Weinman Mineral Gallery, The Fossil Gallery, Science in Movement and The Collins Household My Massive Yard. A few of the hottest reveals are an 80-foot-long Brontosaurus and a reproduction 1903 Wright flyer.
Tellus additionally homes three particular exhibit galleries, a fossil dig, and gem-panning interactive exhibit, in addition to a 120-seat digital planetarium and an observatory that encompasses a state-of-the-art 20-inch telescope.
“The museum grew to become a Smithsonian Affiliate shortly after opening in January 2009,” Redd added. Affiliation with the Smithsonian advantages museums with assist in improvement, experience, fundraising and promotion. “Research locally have proven that many guests to the realm got here primarily to go to Tellus,” she mentioned, noting that the typical annual attendance at Tellus, excluding 2020 and 2021, is simply over 195,000. “So far, we’ve hosted 2,456,000-plus friends.”
Tellus Science Museum, 100 Tellus Dr., Cartersville, Ga. 30120. 770-606-5700, tellusmuseum.org
Open every day, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed New Yr’s Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas
Admission is $17 for adults; $15 for seniors, 65+; $13 for youths aged 3-17; and free for youths 2 and underneath.
Savoy Car Museum
Contained in the 65,000-square-foot Savoy Car Museum, guests are invited to roam a Nice Corridor and 4 exhibition galleries that showcase cars of various makes, fashions, and eras. There may be additionally a state-of-the-art theatre with stadium seating for practically 300 friends that features an extremely hi-definition video panel wall, measuring 17 toes by 33 toes, and a turntable stage for rotating autos. The museum’s everlasting assortment rotates periodically; it features a 1932 Rolls Royce 20/25, 1953 Kaiser Dragon and 1957 Chevrolet Corvette.
The museum’s title appeared pre-determined. “When growing the land, a 1954 Plymouth Savoy automobile with a tree rising out of it was unearthed. As if by destiny, it was the one car uncovered,” Dollevoet mentioned. “This well-known Savoy automobile is on everlasting show outdoors the museum in all its rusted glory.”
The Savoy has a 37-acre campus, and there are plans to construct an outside pavilion to be used with occasions on the showgrounds. Present and upcoming exhibitions embrace: “Pirelli: The Story of a Firm,” by means of Sept. 4, with a set of vehicles that don Pirelli tires, together with Method One, Ferrari and Lamborghini; “FrontRunners,” by means of Oct. 2, that includes record-breaking Indy roadsters from the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties; and “Massive Blocks,” Aug. 2-Dec. 4, showcasing “the massive and daring from an iconic period in American automotive historical past.”
Along with exhibitions, the Savoy hosts occasions. On August 13 at 2 p.m., the 1968 Steve McQueen movie “Bullitt” might be proven on the Savoy’s theatre. “Ford v Ferrari,” a 2019 film starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale, is scheduled for Sept. 16 at 7 p.m.
Although it’s solely been open since final December, the Savoy Car Museum has been getting a variety of curiosity. It has already welcomed greater than 70,000 guests and has grown its membership to over 2,500.
Savoy Car Museum, 3 Savoy Lane, Cartersville, Ga. 30120, 770-416-1500, savoymuseum.org
Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults; $5 for youths 3-12; and free for youths 2 and underneath, in addition to energetic navy (with ID).
However Wait, There’s Extra!
Different noteworthy locations to go to in Cartersville and Bartow County:
Bartow Historical past Museum, the fourth museum managed by Georgia Museums, Inc., illustrates the previous and current of Bartow County with reveals that span 200 years, beginning with life within the early 1800s when the realm was inhabited by Cherokee. The museum additionally has a membership program, beginning at $30 a yr, in addition to volunteer alternatives.
4 Church St., Cartersville, Ga. 30120, 770-387-2774, bartowhistorymuseum.org
Open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., admission is $7 for adults; $6 for college students and seniors, 65+; and free for youths 5 and underneath, in addition to energetic navy.
Outdated Automobile Metropolis Automobile Museum payments itself as “the world’s largest identified traditional automobile junkyard.” Tons of of vehicles relaxation on 34 acres, with deep South vegetation winding round them. “It is a favourite of mine, as a result of it’s so distinctive and eclectic, plus Dean Lewis, the proprietor, is a good storyteller,” Dollevoet mentioned. “Outdoors the principle constructing, there may be a variety of strolling, so I’d simply suggest this for agile seniors.”
3098 Hwy. 411 NE, White, Ga. 30184, 770-382-6141, oldcarcityusa.com
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission is money solely. It’s $30 for all ages for anybody who takes pictures. Simply to look (no digicam), admission is $20 for ages 13 and up; $10 for youths 7-12; and free for youths 6 and underneath.
The Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Web site is 54 acres of protected land that was the house to a number of thousand Native People from A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1550. Guests can go to the museum to see artifacts to study life for the Native People of the Mississippian Tradition, in addition to observe a nature path to view the mounds and different websites.
813 Indian Mounds Rd., Cartersville, Ga. 30120, 770-387-3747 gastateparks.org/EtowahIndianMounds
Open 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; mounds space closes at 4:30 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults; $5 for seniors, 62+; $4 for ages 6-17; and $2 for youths underneath 6.
Noble Hill-Wheeler Memorial Middle is a Black cultural museum that options historic features of Black tradition in Bartow County. It’s within the restored Rosenwald Faculty that was in-built 1923 as the primary college for Black kids. That is additionally a cease on the African American Path.
2361 Joe Frank Harris Pkwy., Cassville, Ga. 20123, 770-382-3392, NobleHillWheeler.org, Open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Name to verify hours earlier than visiting. Free.
Rose Garden Museum, on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations, is the restored Victorian Mansion that was as soon as the house of the nationally famend evangelist Sam Jones.
224 Cherokee Ave., Cartersville Ga. 30120,770-387-5162, RoseLawnMuseum.com
Excursions Tuesday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1-5 p.m.; Friday, by appointment solely. Admission is money solely, $7 for adults; and $5 for college students, 12 and underneath.
Adairsville Depot Historical past Museum shares native historical past and particulars Adairsville’s function within the Civil Struggle’s Nice Locomotive chase.
101 Public Sq., Adairsville, Ga. 30103, 770-773-3451 x122, adairsvillega.web
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Admission is free.
Kingston Girls’s Historical past Museum portrays life in Kingston following the Civil Struggle.
13 E. Most important St., Kingston, Ga. 30145
Contact Nettie Holt at 770-386-0146 or Phyllis Casey at 770-336-5637.
Open Saturday and Sunday, 1-4 p.m.; different occasions by appointment. Free.
The Coca-Cola signal on the east wall of Younger Brothers Pharmacy in downtown Cartersville dates to 1894 and has been authenticated as the primary out of doors painted wall commercial for Coca-Cola. The signal obtained the 1990 Georgia Belief Award for Preservation. Twenty-five layers of paint have been eliminated through the restoration to disclose the unique signal.
2 W Most important St., Cartersville, Ga. 30120, 770-382-4010
Open Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m.-2 p.m.; and Sunday 1:30-3 p.m.
