Adams County Historical Society — Attraction in Brighton

I’m thinking many of the high reviews here are from people that may not have been to many historical societies before and aren’t exactly looking at the big picture with how a historical society or museum are supposed to be managed. This is one of those that had a few old items donated decades ago but have not made much effort to collect anything new to build on. In the past twenty years there has been a huge change in this county with demolishing old homes. businesses or structures that have hit the end of their lifespan, many of which are historic and no effort seems to have been made to retain items or the old signs for them. Not even a brick when they’re being torn down. No pictures of what once there and nothing collected from those buildings to preserve. Most historical societies build relationships with the city officials and try to preserve pieces of the history when things are demolished. Entire rows of homes or businesses have been torn down in Thornton alone and lost. The museum has an entire building full of farm equipment that could have easily come from Hobby Lobby (and most likely did!) when they could use some of this space for actual historical items from the surrounding area. It’s a shame because this place has such potential. That being said every time I try and go here to see if anything has been added it’s either closed or none of the other structures are open to the public. Sadly, no one is ever here visiting! It’s just usually one guy behind the desk telling people that only the main building is open with the same old farmhouse items seen before. Sure, the old gas station and schoolhouse are cool to look at but you can’t run a museum on just a few small old buildings. Your history is more than just what was around back in the 1800’s. The one item they have on their wall that I always find interesting is the old overhead image of the county. It’s always fun to see what used to be in a specific location, but even this is disappointing because nothing is marked with any present day street or business markers. Elderly people cannot see the old map details so they’re usually left with just walking away from it because they cannot read it. Come on guys! It’s a simple “then and now” comparison item but it can’t even be used. With better and perhaps more passionate management, this place could be something special and worth going into more than once...

I love this place! I wish it would re open! I Seen an Elvis impersonator here. We also got to take a tour of the 140 year old mansion! I am an amateur ghost hunter so if course I loved it! I loved hearing about the history of the house and family who lived their also. It was awesome. It's a great place for school field trips and families. They have an old gas station and cars and much more must see things! If you can afford to please donate to them even if it's only a few dollars. I know they could use it and they love managing this place. The older couple who run this place work only from donations. They do an excellent job. You can see that they love this place and would do anything to keep it open. Tours used to be only $3....

Incredibly disappointing- staff not willing to open up when clearly stated on signs they are OPEN. So excited to take my son here. Beautiful spring weekday (70 degrees) 4/4/24 around 1130 am. Couldn’t access any of the buildings as they were all locked. Double checked and sure enough museum open per the sign. Went into the cultural center and asked if visitors are allowed to go into the buildings (blacksmith shop, old home, fire station, one room school house)- the answer was “I guess I could unlock one of them for you.” After that he never made a move to actually allow us to view those parts of the museum. If you want to peer through the windows of the buildings trying to view the artifacts this is the...