The Montgomery Area Historical Society’s Adam Room Museum reopened for the year on Saturday, April 1. The Adam Room Museum is open every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., April through mid-December.

Admission is free to the museum and all historical society events. It’s in the former Adam Print Shop at 3 West Houston Avenue.

The museum changes the window displays many times throughout the year, often with tying the present to the past with themes based on the month or season. But the displays inside the museum are also changed periodically. The different displays give the public the opportunity to stay engaged and to keep coming back throughout the eight-month season that the museum is open. Not only does the museum feature Montgomery, they are also committed to preserving the history of Clinton Township, Brady Township, and Washington Township.

Some of the vintage items that are currently on display include a Montgomery Legion Band uniform jacket and hat, a Montgomery Volunteer Fire Company dress jacket, and hand-written ledger of expenses from Bob and Dean McNett’s Radio Corral.

There are permanent displays as well, including a large mural of the Black Hole area that features every school house from yesteryear, as well as some of the historic churches. It also features black and white photos, including a canal boat and the long-gone Reading Railroad station, as well as other points of interest. According to historical society board member Fae Herb, the painting was done by the late Marion McCormick.

Other displays feature Alvira and Ordnance, Montgomery’s industrial history, stories of local soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, and a large collection of Conrad Richter’s writings. Richter lived in the Alvira area and at times boarded in Montgomery while working for the former Farmers and Citizen’s Bank on Main Street. He would later win the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and some of his works would be adapted into films and television specials. His novel “Sea of Grass” was made into a movie by MGM and starred Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.

There are lots of other items to peruse as well.

Another permanent display is the sports alcove, which is a treasure trove of Montgomery sports memorabilia. There are also “Decade Baseballs”, an ongoing project to collect the autographs of every person who ever played Montgomery Little League. Former Little Leaguers are invited to come to the Adam Room Museum at any time during open hours and sign the baseball that corresponds with the decade that they played.

They also have a softball for the signatures of the Lady Raiders softball team that won the state championship in 2022.

In addition to having the Adam Room Museum available, they host a program called Third Thursdays throughout the year where a member or guest speaker will come to speak about local history.

They also host special events about once a year in a place of historical significance.

The historical society’s next special event is “Heritage Sunday” at the Grace Presbyterian Church on Second Street. The program about the history of the church will be on April 23 at 3 p.m. Light refreshments will be available after the talk.