In a town with a disproportionate number of museums, be it art, history, textiles, rare books, etc. it can be easy to overlook a place like the Monroe County History Center –don't do that! The History Center is housed in a regal limestone building on 5th street just west of the public library. The building and the building site are worthy of historical note. It was the location of one of the earlier schools in Monroe County, before becoming home to the first “Colored School” in Bloomington in the late 19th century. That was all before the current building was erected as one of more 1600 Carnegie Libraries that opened across the United States around about 100 years ago.
The Monroe County History Center has several galleries on the top floor, a space of mostly permanent pieces that detail Monroe County’s history through it's objects, artifacts, and narratives. There are gallery spaces that rotate regularly, telling stories about the people, movements, and institutions from both the past and present. The Genealogy and Research Library is a glimpse into documents from the county’s past: court records, marriage records, genealogies, and a lot more from the history of Monroe County.