Something old is new again in Reston.

In the Lake Anne community’s Washington Plaza, the newly renovated Reston Museum has reopened after a nearly nine-month hiatus.

“It was like giving birth,” said Vicky Wingert, president of the Reston Historical Trust, which operates the museum. “We wanted to be open on Founder’s Day [April 18^th], but it took a little longer to do it right.”

During the renovation, the entire space was re-imagined and reconstructed in such a way as to allow the museum the flexibility to be able to fit a variety of temporary exhibits and programs highlighting local artists of all kinds.  

“When the original museum was built in 1997, it was on a shoestring budget with most of the items having been donated,” said Chairman Lynn Lilienthal.

Thanks in part to Supervisor Catherine Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill), the museum was able to secure funding to the tune of nearly $250,000 from county revitalization and community development grants.

Lilienthal said that with the money, the museum was able to hire a professional exhibit designer.

“The designer asked us what the story of Reston was really about,” said Lilienthal.

The new museum now houses 12 panels that highlight the many parts that make up the sum total of Reston, such as its master plan, planned community development, nature areas and its overall evolutionary history.

The museum currently houses an arrowhead that may be over 2,000 years old, found south of Sunrise Valley Drive in 2003. It also displays a Civil War cannonball discovered near Snakeden Branch in 2001. Even the museum’s restroom is a display area, highlighting vintage road and business signs.

A 1960s-era sign in the museum’s main display area boasts that Reston is an “open community” and depicts both black and white faces. 

“This was it as far as any integrated community in Virginia back then,” said volunteer Mary Ellen Craig. “Even in 1971, when I moved to Reston, that was probably still true.”

Craig says that as a planned community, Reston is unsurpassed in terms of housing options. Over the last three decades, she has moved from a detached single-family home, to a waterfront patio home, to her current condominium in Reston Town Center. “I have moved three times, but never left Reston,” she says proudly.

The museum now also boasts a high-definition, flat-screen television that can be used for educational programming or to show oral histories produced by local videographers.

An area of the museum will soon house comprehensive historical archives that will enable students and historians to learn more about Reston.

“We are very excited,” Lilienthal said. “We encourage people to not only come see the new museum, but to become members.”

For more information, go to www.restonmuseum.org.