We have taken friends to the Johnstown tour on several occasions. The museum displays are about the same as always, but the digitized movie is much better than it was.
For all visitors, business travelers, meeting attendees, etc. , no trip to this area is complete without a visit to the Johnstown Flood Museum. Originally, the building was built by Andrew Carnegie, and has undergone many , many updates, With 1889, 1936, and 1977, the people in this town are more than familiar with disaster. The tour guides do an exceptional explanation of the entire experience including . The Academy Award Winning film that is shown at the museum PUTS you there. You feel the thunder, the force of the rain, the rush of the water. You see the destruction, disaster, and the deaths. This may not be a film for very young children, bur if makes anyone visiting Johnstown appreciate the backbone, courage, and entreprenuership that has help make this town survive. Not to be missed.
There are several....one in downtown Johnstown and a National Park Service at the site of the original flood.
Unfortunately, the museum was closed on our first swing through Johnstown. Fortunately, we came back through on our trip home. Combine this museum with the National Park site and you will get a very good history of the Johnstown flood disaster in 1889.
This building began life as a library and now houses the Johnstown Flood Museum. Be sure to see the excellent movie narrated by Len Cariou. It is different from the movie at the Memorial site, less dark, but equally informative. We had about 25 minutes until the movie started when we got there, which gave us plenty of time to look at all the first floor exhibits. There are artifacts found after the flood: clothing, tableware, and other various items. If you follow the displays from left to right around the room, you get a good sequential explanation of the flood and its aftermath. There is also an excellent diorama showing the path of the flood. Such massive devastation in such a short time. Admission was a little expensive ($9.00/adult).I would recommend visiting the museum and the memorial in the same day to get a real feel for what the day of the flood was like.
This attraction is housed in downtown Johnstown. The docents were very knowledgeable and displays of actual artifacts were very interesting. A bit pricy for admission, but the movie about the floods of Johnstown was very well done.
Be sure and arrive in time to see the excellent film which we felt provided a more comprehensive story of the flood and how the city recovered than did the film at the National Park. The exhibits are fairly static but informative. It appears this museum does not have a lot of funding but is supported by an enthusiastic group of volunteers. From the street it's hard to determine if the museum is actually open as there is no OPEN sign on the door and a call to the museum went straight to voice mail. We're glad we took the risk to park and then go into the museum. It's definitely worth a visit.
Glad I took the time to stop here. Learned Alot of history about the great flood and the town. Well worth the seeing.
We arrived at the museum as soon as they opened ($9 per person to get in). The woman was very knowledgeable and truly loved her job. She gave us some brief history and we then were seated to watch the film (which I believe is around 45 minutes long). Unfortunately just as the dam was beginning to break and the man was being sent to warn the town the projector bulb went out. WIthout a replacement there was no way to watch the rest of the movie. The maintenance man was called but it appeared that they would not get a bulb that day. We were then offered our money back (which we did not take) and walked through the rest of the museum with the guide and over to the Oklahoma house. It was very disappointing to not be able to see the rest of the film but we still felt it was worth the money.
This is a worthwhile stop because the bldg was once the public library financed by Andrew Carnegie. They focus on the cultural and post-flood perspectives whereas the NPS center is cheaper but lasers in on only the actual flood. We got the combo ticket for the heritage center which spoke to the immigrants of the time. Depending on how much time you have, choose wisely!