Historians should be advised that the city is acquiring the Masonic Temple at State and Atlantic Streets. There's a seperate blog for this on "Hackensack Discussions", but now that I know there may be an opportunity to secure some space for the City of Hackensack's first museum, let's have a string for that here on the Historic pages.
The city is considering various uses, namely relocating the Cultural Arts Center from Broadway to this facility. Space for senior facilities is also under discussion.
I would think that the "bare bones" of what is needed is storage space for archived materials, a small lockable room (say 150 square feet) to function as an office with a desk and file cabinets, and some exhibits. Perhaps the exhibits would be secure glass cases with artifacts and documents and displayed in public areas of the facility. If we can get something more, that's even better. Nobody expects the city to STAFF a museum, that's not going to happen. But they might be staffing a Cultural Arts Center, so if it doubles as a museum in some capacity, that works. That is what I see as realistic.
The other option would be using the old Cultural Arts Center on Broadway as the Museum, but then again staffing issues would come into play there. It would have to be generally locked down, and opened on a very occasional basis by volunteers. This is the time for interested historians in Hackensack to band together and form an advocacy committee. I can't do it because I'm no longer living in Hackensack, I'm "just watching". Get it ?
Those persons interested in seeing something happen should advocate here on this blog and/or send a letter to the Mayor & Council, 65 Central Ave, Hackensack, NJ 07601.
