The Renovation and Restoration of the former Kruger Street Elementary School


Email the museum: museum@toyandtrain.com.

The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum of today is located in a restored 1906 vintage Victorian schoolhouse. This impressive 24,000 square foot structure underwent nearly two years of repair, renovation, and restoration before opening to the public. Here is a small sampling of the restoration process. For a more complete look at the rebirth of this classic structure, visit our giftshop, either in person or online, and get your copy of our Restoration Video!


The Restoration of the Kruger Street Elementary School

 

VHS Video, SP, color, 30 minutes.

The story of the miraculous evolution of
the former Kruger Street Elementary School,
a 1906 vintage Victorian schoolhouse, into
the Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum!
See why this building won the prestigious
Grand Victorian Award for Restoration in 2000!

Cost: $19.95 + shipping

Take me to the Online Giftshop Page
to order this video!


The Kruger Street Elementary School, circa 1906

 

 

The former Kruger Street Elementary School underwent major renovations and restoration work for nearly two years before reopening as the Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum.

Building our Entrance Road

 

 

To accomodate tour buses and museum visitors, we built our own entrance road and parking access on the museum property.

Demolition Begins!

 

 

First, demolition of unwanted areas of the structure, and removal of later add-ons, had to take place.

Removing Ninety Years of Paint!

 

 

Burning off up to 30 layers of paint with heat guns revealed the beautiful woodwork beneath!

The Pressed Steel Ceilings, Battered but Standing

 

 

The pressed steel ceilings in the museum building are a trademark of the Victorian period. Although in rough shape, our building fortunately retained nearly all of its original ceilings!

Chemically Stripping Off the Carpet Glue

 

 

Years of carpeting and recarpeting the classrooms left behind large amounts of carpet glue, which had to be chemically stripped from our floors.

Our Finished Main Lobby

 

 

As you can see, the finished product was well worth the efforts!

The Floors Shine!

 

 

Those original Georgia yellow pine floors now sparkle like new!

Now THAT'S a Ceiling!

 

 

And the ceilings show off all of their grandeur, just as they did over ninety years ago!



The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum was honored with the 2000 Grand Victorian Award for this restoration project. Taking this historic 1906 vintage school and turning it into a showcase for generations to come was the culmination of years of hard work by the Miller family, owners of the museum. The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum is especially proud of the fact that they are a totally private museum, and have used NO public funds in this project!

The Grand Victorian Award