A portion of the front of the building that houses the Rome Area History Museum collapsed Monday.

Rome Area History Museum Director Leigh Barba told WRGA that she had left the buildings just moments before she got a call telling her the front of the building had collapsed.

There was reportedly a woman who was walking by as the collapse occurred.

Rome City Manager Sammy Rich assessed the damage.

He said (quote) “About half of the front façade of the history museum has simply collapsed into the sidewalk on Broad Street,” he said. “Fortunately no one was injured and that is the first bit of good news. I guess it’s one of the unfortunate realities of older historic buildings, but what’s exposed is the old wood material and it is very rotten. You get a really good look of what has been going on back there for probably the last 100 years with rotten wood.” (end-quote)

He also had a theory of what caused the collapse.

“The sign where actually the words ‘Rome Area History Museum’ are written, that’s essentially a plaster material that would have been spread upon some wire mesh backing and attached to the wooden flat; when those flats rotted and deteriorated it simply couldn’t hold the weight up, and that’s what appears has happened. We’ll be taking steps to get the remainder down and get the building secured as quickly as possible. Then we’ll figure out how to move forward.”

(WRGA)