Rome’s history is a long one and with a number of historic sites and interests not only important to this area, but to American history as a whole, Edwin D. Bevitt, the Executive Secretary of the Rome Area Chamber of Commerce, believed its story needed to be preserved and told.

In 1936, he led the efforts to found the Rome Historical Society along with the opening of a museum in the city’s library. Today, the museum is housed a former United States Post Office and the Rome Historical Society operates a 3,700 square foot museum with both permanent and rotating exhibits. These exhibits are based on their collection of more than 40,000 items, carefully preserved in 8,400 square foot artifact storage and is home to more than 10,000 archived books, documents, photographs, and paper records.