showcase storage of our building collection

With the Showcase storage of our buildings collection, a previously little-known aspect of the museum’s work is being made accessible to a wider public. Around 90 dismantled buildings—known as the “sleeping houses”—are stored on the museum grounds. Particularly well-preserved building stacks that stand in the way of new projects are gradually being relocated to the storage depot in the East Hesse building group. At present, the depot holds more than 20 stored buildings as well as several original beams from the Martinsklause, which could not be used during reconstruction due to severe damage.

To provide interested visitors with background information on the history and significance of the “sleeping houses,” the storage depot has been equipped with signage. Brief profiles attached to each building stack offer a concise overview of the construction date, place of origin, usage history, and architectural features. A photograph of the building in its original location completes the information. The variety ranges from a forester’s lodge and a fire station to residential houses, workshops, and smaller outbuildings. Each building stack thus represents a facet of rural architectural and social history.

At the same time, the new information displays shed light on the origins of the extensive building collection. The profound structural changes in rural areas since the 1960s and 1970s—which resulted in a wave of demolitions targeting historic architecture—gave rise to a “preservation mindset” at the Hessenpark Open-Air Museum. Many of the buildings brought to the museum during this period could not be reconstructed, whether for structural, financial, or conceptual reasons. With the storage depot, a new and easily accessible information site has been created on the museum grounds. It not only offers insights into the history of the stored building stacks, but also illustrates—through concrete examples—the challenges inherent in museum collection practices.