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Sandy Museum Celebrates 28 Years

Dec 07, 2015 12:12PM ● By Aimee L Cook

By Aimee L. Cook

Sandy - The Sandy Museum is housed in a historic building built in 1890 that showcases two floors of historic items unique to Sandy City. Located at 8744 South 150 East, the museum recently held an open house to celebrate its 28th anniversary and to honor one of the museum’s most dedicated volunteers, Dorothy P. Nelson, who was there when the doors first opened.

“We had about 100 people attend our open house this year,” director Sherry Worthen said. “We like to honor a special person who has been particularly important to the museum.  We serve light foods and cake and have musicians play music that is appropriate for that person. We let them pick out one song that we know is their favorite song.”

The museum building was originally a ZCMI co-op store and is one of only three left standing. Through the years the building has also been a men’s social club, a mortuary and a fire station before becoming a museum. 

Downstairs, there are large wooden display cases left over from the days of the co-op. In one case, there is an old telephone switchboard with a candlestick phone.  Upstairs there is an old kitchen with the old coal stove, the ice box and butter churn. There is also a bedroom with a chamber pot and a school room with an old desk. 

“We have an old fire suit that looks like a space suit that the Boy Scouts really like,” Worthen said. “There is also a test bomb, mess kits, World War I military uniforms and a lot of old toys.”

The majority of the items in the museum were obtained through donations given by the public. Worthen said she only knows of one item that they have purchased for the museum, and those were four tokens that were used at ZCMI. 

“I believe the Sandy Museum is very important to preserving our heritage as a city,” Korban Lee, assistant CAO for Sandy City, said. “For 28 years, the museum has offered citizens and students a place to learn about our past, discover interesting artifacts, and begin to understand what has shaped Sandy into the city it is today.  The city supports the Sandy Museum and considers it a key aspect of rounding out our community.”