MOHNTON PA – The Berks Military History Museum, which opened during August 2017 and has since earned increasing community and donor financial support, plans to expand its facilities on East Wyomissing Avenue.
Members of Mohnton Borough Council, during its Feb. 14 meeting, voted unanimously to give conditional final plan approval to the museum, at 198 E. Wyomissing Ave., for $3.5 million in new construction. The museum intends to add a three-story, 9,000-square-foot addition that will double its space on the same parcel. The separate buildings will be connected by access to a shared elevator.
Interest in an exhibit created by museum volunteers during the COVID pandemic served as inspiration for the new building. The group gutted and renovated a little-used kitchen area to create a room dedicated to the Holocaust, according to museum founder and 128th House District Rep. Mark Gillen.
The district includes all or portions of Douglass (Berks), Amity, Union, and Robeson townships. The museum is located about 20 miles northwest of Pottstown, near the entrance to Berks County Park.
Gillen said the project is about to go to bid, and he hoped construction could start within weeks. Olsen Design Group of Bern Township is said to be the project architect. The building might be finished within a year.
In the interim, Gillen and volunteers will start planning exhibits, collecting artifacts, and creating display designs for what they said would be two floors dedicated to the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews by the Nazis during World War II.
Some of those artifacts may be provided on loan by the Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center in Elkins Park PA, established in 1961. Officials there took an interest in and visited the Berks County museum, and discussed the prospect of permanent loans, the Reading Eagle newspaper reported. Their comments were said to have propelled expansion plans and later helped fund-raising efforts.
At the museum now
The museum currently operates only on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. An admission fee is not mentioned, but reviewers said donations are welcomed. School and senior citizen groups, as well as veterans organizations, can call the museum call the museum at 484-345-8084 to make an appointment to view its collections.
Its listing on Visit PA Americana, the tourism promotion website for Reading and Berks County, notes the museum places special emphasis on the participation of Berks County residents in a variety of conflicts, and offers exhibits from the county “and beyond.”
The museum has received several favorable comments on both Facebook Reviews and Google Reviews. Visitors have mentioned they enjoyed its artifacts, equipment, models, dioramas, and uniforms. They also praise its “knowledgeable volunteers.”
Photo from The Berks Military History Museum on Facebook
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