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Sharing the past with today’ s residents
Local artifacts and educational programs preserve and share Bloomington’ s history, curated by the Bloomington Historical Society.
The Historical Society operates the Old Town Hall History Museum, providing glimpses of the city’ s origin and early history.
Built in 1892 and extensively renovated in 2007, Old Town Hall served as the town headquarters and a meeting place for the Town Board. It was a community meeting place where celebrations, dances and other social festivities were held. The city of Bloomington’ s administrative offices were housed in the building until 1964.
Since 1964, the building has been home to the Historical Society’ s museum and research center, which features exhibits and artifacts from the pioneer days through the mid-century population boom.
From a Native American dugout canoe to photos and artifacts from the former Metropolitan Stadium, the museum contains a vast collection of Bloomington history.
The dugout canoe was discovered along the Minnesota River bluffs in Bloomington in 1967. After being authenticated by the Minnesota Historical Society, it was put on permanent display at the museum.
The museum also houses the Irwin Norling photo collection. The collection consists of approximately 10,000 images, taken by Norling from 1953 through the 1970s. The collection chronicles the life of the Bloomington community and features index and caption information provided by Norling, who was a meticulous record keeper. His photos of the building of Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington are a collection highlight.
Another area of the museum honors military service by Bloomington residents, with a collection of uniforms from World War I through the Gulf War.
Select artifacts are also available for viewing online through a 2024 grant from Minnesota’ s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the Minnesota Historical Society. The process to digitize its collections is expected to take several years.
A volunteer board of directors oversees the Historical Society, a nonprofit organization, and the museum.
The Historical Society organizes periodic events and presentations through the year, and also maintains display cases at the Bloomington Center for the Arts.
The Old Town Hall Museum is operated by an all-volunteer staff and funded by memberships and visitor donations. It is open 1-5 p. m. Wednesdays and Saturdays and 1-8 p. m. Thursdays.
Old Town Hall History Museum 10200 Penn Ave. 952-881-4114 bloomingtonhistoricalsociety. org
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