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We’re moving!

The current museum, located in the Russell House on Lacey Street, will close Friday, November 8. The museum will re-open its new location on 6th Ave. at the Bell Center early next year.

Space has always been a challenge for the museum, limiting the exhibits and activities it can host. The new Bell Center location provides over 1,100 square feet for exhibits, programs, events, interactive exhibits, and other uses. This expanded facility will allow the museum to showcase items that could not be previously displayed.

The existing museum location will become a dedicated research center where people can explore the museum library, archives, subject files, genealogy collections, and more.

Located in the heart of Lacey’s historic neighborhood, discover Lacey’s surprising and fascinating past in the charming 1928 Russell House, once a residence, fire station, and Lacey’s first City Hall.

We tell vibrant stories of Lacey and the South Sound’s past through exhibits, guided tours and walks, history talks, programs and more. We also have a wealth of information and thousands of historic photographs to help you in your own interest and research.

The Lacey Museum is part of the City of Lacey’s Parks, Culture & Recreation Department.

Temporary Exhibit

America and its history is a patchwork of many tales which have been woven over time from the voyages of people—both voluntary and involuntary—who traveled from city-to-city, state-to-state and around the world to find new opportunities. Whether by air, land or sea, travel has played a crucial part in our economic and cultural identities.

Journey Stories is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

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Core Exhibitions

Shaping Our Community Together: 50 Years as a City

Lacey Museum and Lacey City Hall

Explore the stories that took the small farming community of Woodland and turned it into the city of Lacey we know today.

Find out why you leave and enter Lacey multiple times on Martin Way, what finally forced the residents of Lacey to create a new city, and how Lacey got its name.

Destination: Lacey!

Lacey Museum

In the 1920s, Lacey’s five lakes became a destination for regional vacationers. Entrepreneurial locals developed their property with attractions like water slides, high dives, dance halls, and roller skating rinks. Discover more about this fascinating time in Lacey’s history and what happened to the 20 resorts that dotted the shores of Lacey’s lakes.

Learning in Lacey

Lacey Museum

From its first one-room schoolhouse in 1853 to the largest school district in the county, education has always been an important part of the fabric of the Lacey community. Take a nostalgic trip through the school room, including trying out a slate chalkboard or sitting in school desks from a bygone age.

Saint Martin’s University and the adjoining abbey have been a focal point of the Lacey community since it opened in 1895.

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Lacey Museum