Museum of Appalachia seeks donations to help rebuild ‘Wilson Barn’
A giant tree fell over and split the Wilson Barn on the grounds of the Museum of Appa- lachia nearly in two during a recent thunderstorm. The museum is now trying to raise $10,000 to restore the historic barn.
Now, the museum has launched a fundraising drive seeking $10,000 to restore the barn, which is one of the many wooden pioneer structures on the grounds of the museum along Andersonville Highway in Norris.
The tree fell directly into the center of the barn, virtually splitting it in two.
Work to restore it will include making sure it still looks like the original wooden structure that was brought to the museum years ago. That will include finding aged barn wood that matches what was originally there, museum officials said.
For now, the building remains split in two, and is blocked off from visitors by yellow police-style tape running completely around it.
As of Monday afternoon, just under $3,500 of the needed $10,000 had been raised through the museum’s Facebook page, which has a button to click to make a donation.
The museum is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, but has no outside funding other than donations, and operates mainly off of admissions fees, memberships and special-event revenue.
The COVID-19 pandemic took a huge hit on the museum’s finances, as it forced the museum to close for a while, and to cancel or postpone some of its most-important money-raising events.