The Kernersville Museum will be reopening in a new location, the century-old Morris House at 109 South Cherry Street, early next month.

Museum administrator Heidi Tufte announced the opening date, which will coincide with the annual Blooms to Bells downtown tour on December 6, at a community forum this week.

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“We are not open yet, but the good news is construction is finished,” she said. “We have our occupancy. I’m moving and designing as we speak.”

Clay Flint, secretary of the Kernersville Museum Foundation, was also on hand and said the reopening marks the culmination of years of transition after the museum was forced to relocate several years ago.

“We had to close it in 2022,” he said of the Bellamy House on West Mountain Street, just around the corner from the new location. “Just too many structural issues. It was deemed unsafe. At that point, it created an introspective for us to decide what we were going to do as a board.”

The process eventually led to an agreement between the nonprofit and the Town of Kernersville last year.

“The town manages operations — property, facility, and the artifacts,” Flint explained. “… The foundation still carries the mission forward to support the efforts of the Kernersville Museum. We want to be behind the scenes. We don’t want to be the face.”

Follow Scope News on social media for more updates and a sneak peek of the museum ahead of its reopening.

Kernersville History Alliance takes shape

As Scope News previously reported, Monday’s forum focused on the emerging Kernersville History Alliance, a partnership between four local groups: the Kernersville Historic Preservation Society, the Kernersville Museum, the Kernersville Museum Foundation, and the Korner’s Folly Foundation.

Tufte said the alliance allows the organizations to “work in tandem” on volunteers, programming, community engagement, and other common goals.

Korner’s Folly Foundation community engagement manager Brittany Hendley called the alliance “an amazing way to continue this progress that we’ve been making,” noting that the John and Bobbie Wolfe Visitors Center adjacent to Korner’s Folly has opened “a whole slew of new opportunities for community engagement.”

KHPS President Mandy Cheek highlighted the potential to expand longstanding efforts such as schoolhouse programs and research projects, while Vice President Bruce Frankel, who organized and moderated the event, stressed that the group’s structure would remain collaborative rather than hierarchical.

“Driven from the bottom up, not the top down,” he assured attendees. “The four groups will have a say, ‘This is what we want to do. Do you want to help us?'”

Representatives from all four organizations shared a common message with the community: They could use some more help from the community.

“We will need volunteers to help give tours of the museum complex,” Tufte said.

Hendley echoed that sentiment: “We’re always looking for volunteers. Any dedicated history lover or enthusiast, we would love to connect.”

Cheek added that her group simply “doesn’t have enough volunteers” to meet growing demand.

Residents also have an opportunity to weigh in on the alliance’s priorities. Click here to complete a brief online survey.

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