History House Museum

History House Museum is a collection of photographic and archival records and historical objects relating to Grey District on the West Coast of New Zealand.

The museum opened in the former Grey County Council Chambers in 1996, but the building was deemed unsafe in the event of an earthquake and forced to close in 2017.

Kevin Brown recruited volunteers from the Lions, family, and local community to fit out the building and assemble a collection.

[3] When Brown was elected Mayor in 1998, volunteer Bob Naisbitt took over the running of the museum, along with assistant historian Margaret Mort.

[6] The location of the museum (at the other end of town from the railway station where most tourists arrived) and the lack of signage were blamed for the low visitor numbers: about 6–8 people a day.

In 1999, the museum held an exhibition of ten Charles Goldie reproductions, on loan from the son of the proprietor of the by-then defunct Golden Eagle Hotel.

Volunteers Jack Flood (left) and George Gardner apply a paint job to the Standard Austin-Western Grader outside History House Museum. The Grey County Council purchased the grader in 1920 for £225.
James Tunnicliffe cleaning the gold-mining Kershaw Pump outside History House Museum