A long-awaited renovation has been completed at the Ice House Museum on Bridgeway in Sausalito.
The museum, which underwent a year of extensive modernization to become an interactive exhibition of the city’s history, will reopen on Wednesday.
The museum’s hours will be 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is free, said Jerry Taylor, president of the Sausalito Historical Society.
“There are artifacts, photos and information panels on walls and on railings,” Taylor said. “Additional videos and links to in-depth information through the use of QR codes enhance our ability to inform, educate and entertain.”
Stanford Hughes, an architect and project manager on the renovation, called the museum a state-of-the-art attraction.
“It is an opportunity for the public to experience the various aspects of Sausalito’s history, including the land, the water and the people,” he said. “There’s a series of beautiful displays in the wall from the historic ice house that tell the story of the city and it gives you a perspective you might not otherwise know.”
The new exhibition includes an interactive 85-inch flat-screen TV featuring historical topics such as land development, people and shipping. The museum itself is a renovation of a historic railroad cooler car.
The exhibition was designed by Donald Sibbett and fabricated by Scientific Arts Studio. It includes video and audio aspects, including oral lessons and a focus on maritime history.
The exhibit also includes elements from the old exhibit, such as the wheel from the ferry building, historical photographs and a wooden display cabinet with Miwok artifacts.
The renovation of the building at 780 Bridgeway cost approximately $250,000, Taylor said. The historical society is still accepting donations. An opening party for donors is expected to be held in September.
“We owe this to the generosity of Sausalito citizens and organizations who contributed,” Taylor said.
The renovations were based on the vision of the historical society’s founder, illustrator Phil Frank, creator of the comic strip “Farley.” Frank died in 2007.
Frank organized a pop-up exhibition of the city’s history in 1993 during the city’s centennial celebration. When the society decided to make the exhibition permanent, he led fundraising for the relocation of the building from Caledonia Street to Bridgeway and Bay Street. It was converted to a museum in 1999.
The former ice house, built in the 1880s, provided customers with large frozen blocks for food refrigeration. Michael Rex, an architect who was friend of Frank, bought the building in the 1980s for $1 and sold it to the city for the same price during the planned move.
The renovation project follows upgrades to the adjacent plaza, which features a representation of the old railroad line that once ran through the city, a timeline of Sausalito history etched into the ground and a life-size statue of Frank.
