THE NEWLY INSTALLED interactive doctor/veterinarian office in the Kid's Zone is one area where the Gregg County Historical Museum is changing its focus.

MUSEUMS | HANDS-ON

Child-sized facades for a medical office, post office and printing office were installed this week inside the Gregg County Historical Museum’s basement.

The replica turn-of-the-20th-century facades and equipment mark a turning point for the facility, which is transforming its children’s exhibit areas into a more hands-on experience — a movement also taking place at other downtown Longview museums.

“Since (Longview World of Wonders Museum) opened and they’ve got such great math and science (exhibits), we needed to move into a hands-on history so that we can become a full hands-on district,” Gregg County Historical Museum Executive Director Lindsay Loy said, “and Longview Museum of Fine Arts is now doing that with all of the artwork.”

Children’s exhibits have been part of the historical museum since its inception in 1984. Those exhibits, such as a log cabin room, mostly have been hands-off, as children and school tour groups walked past and observed but couldn’t touch, Loy said.

She’s eliminating those rules, starting with the development of an area aimed mostly at children between the ages of 3 and 8.

Workers with Museum Fabrication Group have been installing interactive doctor/veterinarian, postal and printing offices in what will be called the Kid’s Zone. Loy plans to toss aside a guardrail in the log cabin room and replace breakable items with replica cooking and eating utensils, bonnets, aprons and other items that children can touch, feel and learn in a more direct way.

“We’re trying to give different elements — an element of play, of science, of creative writing, matching, cooking, life skills (and) drawing,” Loy said. “We’re trying to incorporate a lot of stuff but at the same time attempting to incorporate a little bit of history.”

Because interactive learning isn’t as feasible when children tour the museum in large groups, Loy intends to present children in school tours with tickets to return with their families for hands-on play in a more intimate setting.

The transformation at the museum took several years of fundraising from multiple foundations and individuals, such as the late Ann Lowman, before installation could commence, she said. Next steps include painting — both traditional wall painting and of natural landscapes — and the adding of equipment and other personal items in which she’s enlisting the community’s help.

“I would love for Longview citizens to go through their old stuff and find photos of themselves as a kid with their family pets,” Loy said. She wants to use those photos to decorate a wall inside the medical office meant to serve humans and animals, something commonly found in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Loy also wants local dignitaries to write letters that will be used as mail at the replica post office. The museum will have a letter-writing station where children can learn how to write a letter and can use printing press equipment donated by News-Journal Publisher Stephen McHaney to ink their letters and drop them into replica mail slots, she said.

“We’re trying to make things educational as well because it’s almost going to be a matching game for the younger ones — matching names, matching numbers,” she said.

Her goal is to have Kid’s Zone completed in November.

“I want this to be completely done before Christmas so that kids can come in here and play, so I’ve got a lot of purchasing left to do,” she said. “I’m going to be up here Mondays in my painting clothes.”