Museum arriving at the Depot, after 25-year journey

A vision of a brilliantly-presented center for Lexington’s local history has been stuck at the Depot, you might say, for a quarter-century — but now it’s moving forward, just in time for the quarter-millennium celebrations of the battle that made the town famous.

The Lexington Historical Society is embarking on a transformation of the Depot into a showcase for the Society’s extraordinary collections, and a community space anchoring a hoped-for revitalization of the Center business and cultural district. 

In early November the Depot — long a staging ground for community events, trade expos and private functions — will close to the public for about five months, first for renovation of the physical space, then for installation of exhibit cases and other museum infrastructure, then the mounting of the precious artifacts bequeathed to the Society over 140 years.

Those artifacts — tools and clothing, documents and household items and other treasures from the Society’s Archives and Research Center at Munroe Tavern — will tell the community’s story, from hunting grounds for Native peoples to staging grounds for biotech and supercomputing wizardry. (Interestingly, both of those activities occurred in roughly the same area, around Hartwell Ave.)

As spring 2025 approaches, with the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War’s first shot on the Lexington Green, panels and art on the building’s outside will be installed to complete the storytelling. They’ll help orient visitors to the Society’s now-expansive campus of historic buildings.

That modern incarnation — a complex of museum buildings with the Depot as their hub — will be reflected in a name change, from Lexington Historical Society to Lexington History Museums.

“Lexington is a town filled with change-makers who made a difference, whether they realized it at the time or not,” said Anne Lee, who as executive director has been coordinating the myriad elements involved in the transformation, from fundraising to furniture.

“It’s thrilling to tell these stories through many more pieces in our extensive collection, most of which have never been seen before, have been recently conserved, or can only be on view for short periods due to their fragility,” Lee said in an email. “I hope every Lexington resident will find a story, object, or person that will resonate with them — and will also want to come back again and again for special talks and events, and when we highlight special new acquisitions.”

The major theme of this reinvention is the uplifting of Lexington’s whole history. For 200 years, and certainly since the Founding of the Historical Society in 1886, the focus has been on one morning in April, 1775.  But the town always displayed an unusual inclination to take action in the name of difficult advancements, and the new museum will show how that instinct played out. From the abolitionists of East Lexington who built the Stone Building Lyceum to the founders of the state’s first teacher’s college in the current Masonic lodge, to the academics who anchored the town’s welcome to Asian newcomers in the 1970s, Lexington has walked the walk of positive change, and the Depot museum is intended to reveal it.

Actually, the idea of bringing forward all the town’s history, and all its different kinds of people, is far from new. In 1999, a group of Society stalwarts had the idea of buying the Depositor’s Trust Bank building — that’s what the Depot became as the railroad declined — and turning it into an event space and local-history museum.

Documents in the Society’s own archives lay out the saga: acquisition of the building from US Trust; the vision of a shared community center for learning and exploration of all the town’s history; then the typical difficulties of renovating a huge old building and a struggle, ultimately unsuccessful, to raise the funds for the interior, educational infrastructure. 

That was in the early 2000s. This year’s campaign for elevation of the space has gone amazingly well by contrast. Starting with a $150,000 grant from the state secured by Rep. Michele Ciccolo and Sen. Michael Barrett, the Society has turned to area residents themselves, and they’ve exceeded the hopes of staff and Society old-timers.

The capital campaign for the project shot past the funding needed for the interior work and the Society decided to keep pushing for the entire $1.1 million needed to complete the full project, inside and out, and fund the startup years of operation. The campaign stands at well over $900,000, said Operations and Development Manager Amy Horsburgh.

“Many of our donors are giving the largest amount they’ve ever given to the Society, sometimes five times more than they’ve ever given. And we’re seeing lots of people who’ve never given to the Society before give to the Depot campaign, or people who haven’t given in some time. That’s really exciting.”

One of the engines of the fundraising, Gresh Lattimore, is also one of those relative newcomers to the cause. Lattimore’s been in Lexington a long time, but “just recently came to the Historical Society.” He helped spearhead a series of small get-togethers with a time-honored fundraising pitch: “You’re here because we know you, we know you value the Historical Society, and we know you have money.” 

It worked. “People really get it, and it’s been amazing,” Lattimore said. “I’ve been able to tell them that you’re contributing to the community, its future. I’ve always loved living in Lexington, I love seeing the Minuteman statue, and that gave my ask a coherence — your bucks mean so much more than an ordinary campaign that way, that you’re really building a project that the whole community is going to be involved in and cares about.

“It’s not a museum about the Revolutionary conflict. It’s that LexSeeHer vision of including everybody, which I think is a fantastic vision.”

Horsbourgh said a good deal of the community enthusiasm can be ascribed to “glamor” — it’s simply easier to fundraise for an exciting new center than for the money to keep one lit and heated, or health insurance for staffers — but that’s the reality of all museums. And she and Lattimore agreed a Lexington museum that’s focused on the town, not the battle, connects with residents.

“I’m particularly excited because it’s going to be about not just about the leaders or the battles, but what history is so much about is the stories of everyday people, and those stories will be told here,” Horsburgh said. “What I like about history is feeling connected to the people who came before me, and this is going to make that happen. And the people who contributed will be able to walk into the space knowing they helped build it.”

The Depot museum is being designed and its exhibits created by H2 Design of Middleboro, a woman-owned business that’s created exhibition spaces for dozens of museums, often similar to the Depot — lots of stories to tell in a small space. The Newport Historical Society and the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit are recent examples of H2’s work.

Entering the Depot, visitors now see a cavernous shell whose soaring arched windows are as beautiful as its stained carpet is unfortunate. Starting next spring, what they’ll see instead are cases filled with Society artifacts, arranged by themes: Creating Community; Art and Architecture; Activism and Change; Making a Living. Maps and panels will orient out-of-towners and residents alike to the location of the Society’s three historic houses and their roles in the Revolution and over time. 

Timelines of Lexington and world history will put local events in their larger context. Interactive electronics and hands-on displays will engage kids and encourage all visitors to think about the meaning of the townspeoples’ stories. And the Depot’s own history as the town’s link to the world via the railway won’t be neglected, touched on throughout the exhibits and looked in depth in the outdoor displays on the building’s bike path side.

The Revolution will not be absent, of course — one end wall will be entirely devoted to the events of 1775 and what preceded them, along with the Battle’s aftermath. The “Revolution Wall” will be anchored on a prize of the Society’s collection, the 1852 E.G. Leutze painting, “First News From Lexington.”

The center of the space will remain free of exhibits, available for events and rentals, though capacity will drop from the current 100-plus level of the empty shell to about 55. The nature of what’s permissible for users will change too — it’s unlikely the Lexington Minutemen will be able to drill among the exhibits and treasures in the transformed Depot, for example.

Lee said the decision-making about changing the usage of the Depot was a question of balance. “We purposely designed a flexible space at the new Depot Museum, so we will have the capacity to have programs and events — just on a slightly smaller scale and at times when the museum itself is closed. It will be a special setting and we hope people will enjoy the space as museum visitors, as renters, or at one of our programs. And fortunately there are also other terrific places in Lexington available for rental.” 

Lee pointed out, and longtime residents will attest: when people donated to the original Depot purchase and renovation, in the early 2000s, it was with the promise that the space was going to be a local history center and a museum to showcase the amazing variety of objects that, for the most still, are still slumbering out of view in the Society’s archives.

“Museum” is a misleading word. Yes, the exhibits and relics will be engrossing — but in the 21st century, much of the history-telling of museums is done by people putting on ever-changing programs in the museum space, said Dan Marshall, Society director of education and interpretation.  

“Programming does the job. That’s the way museums operate nowadays,” said Larissa Hansen who as creative director and partner at H2 Design has worked on hundreds of museums “over more years than I care to count.” 

“The Depot does tell a story, but it’s the people who bring it to life,” Hansen said. 

She’s excited to work with the space, “which has a lot of challenges but a lot of opportunities. The town’s bread and butter of course is the Revolution, and I’m glad that’s included of course, but in this museum it will be a small chapter in the overall history of a community, explored with what Larsen called “an object-based narrative,” but kept fresh with temporary shows and varied programs: something that makes people went to come out. You are a museum for local people first and foremost … and you want to bring local people again and again.”

The Depot could not be more centrally located, nor more of a natural draw, combining the appeal of Emery Park – Depot Sq. — with events and activities at the Depot to keep locals and tourists alike engaged. At least that’s the conception: a March 2024 consultants’ report found the three greatest strengths of Lexington’s center are the town’s historic assets, the Bikeway, and Depot Sq. and Emery Park And those consultants told the community-minded attendees at their workshops that it’s local people returning over and over, not tourists, that keep a business district lively and thriving. 

It will hardly be the Depot’s first incarnation as a center of Town commerce. Built in 1846, the Depot took the same journey as American railroads themselves, a crucial part of everyday life for 75 years, and then steadily diminishing in use and value as cars and trucks took over. Plenty of Lexingtonians still remember Boston and Maine trains rolling through the Center, and a few recall catching the train at the Depot — but outside the building. By the early 1960’s, train volume had dropped sufficiently that the railroad sold the building and it was bought by a bank. After a snowstorm in 1977, the MBTA announced the Lexington line was closing. 

From his office on Merriam St., 50 ft off the bike path and two doors down from the Depot, Les Savage recalled standing in that very same office — it was his father’s — in the mid-60’s listening and watching as trains rolled through. He loved it, but it drove his father crazy.

About 15 years later, Savage became president of the Historical Society — and went through the mixed suffering and pride of heading up the effort to buy and renovate the Depot. And he well recalls the frustration of not having the funds for its conversion in a true museum for the full sweep of the town’s history and the Society’s collections. 

When a key contractor went bankrupt, the moment came when the Society had to decide whether to break off the renovation and sell the building. Savage and his compatriots found a way to complete the work and open the Depot as the function and office space it is today — and put the vision of the locally-focused community museum on hold. For the 250th, he’ll be on hand to see the vision completed.

 “It’s a bold move, but it’s the right move.” Savage said. “I think it’s fantastic.”

Craig Sandler is the President of the Board of Directors for the Lexington Historical Society