The Stutsman County Memorial Museum in Jamestown, ND, USA is a lot like many museums in the midwest United States, except that this one is handicapped accessible! With an outside elevator on the east side of the building and stair lifts inside, you can get to the area of the museum you want if you are willing plan ahead.
The museum is located at 231 3rd Avenue SE and is open from June - September.
The outside elevator must be opened and operated by museum staff so wheelchair users will need to call ahead or have someone along who can climb stairs to enter the museum on the west side and alert staff that you are needing their assistance around back. The elevator will accommodate 500 pounds.
Once inside the building from the elevator you will find yourself on the 1st floor.
There is enough to see on the 1st floor to make the visit worthwhile but, should you wish to go upstairs a floor or two or downstairs a floor, you will want to ride on the stair lifts and may need assistance transferring from your wheelchair to the lifts. You may also want to bring along a basic folding wheelchair to use on the other floors if your chair is difficult for someone to move up and down the stairs. The hostess shared that the museum hopes to eventually have wheelchairs in place on each floor. There are a few narrow areas on the 1st floor that we encountered but we were able to navigate pretty much everywhere we wanted to go.
The museum is free but there is a place on the 1st floor to sign in and make a donation if you have the funds. The house was originally a mansion built for George Lutz (see photo above) in 1907. Lutz was a lumberyard owner. The house had steam heat in the early 1900's from a steam plant that supplied steam for much of the uptown area.
The interior photos above were all taken on the main floor. Soon, we hope to return with an extra wheelchair and continue our exploration of the museum.
Photos by Zach & John
