Safeguarding the Past

In fall 2025, work wrapped up on the long-awaited Annex to the Martinsville-Henry County Heritage Center & Museum in Martinsville, Virginia. The brand-new 13,000-square-foot building, donated and funded by Dr. Mervyn and Virginia King, dramatically expands the museum’s capacity, bringing the total exhibit space (when combined with the former Henry County Courthouse) to over 25,000 square feet. Collections include Native American artifacts, rare antiques, Marklin and Lionel model trains, gambling parlor items, medical, drafting, and textile tools, and much more.

As museum leadership planned for the Annex, they confronted a key concern: security and preservation. Many items in the King Collection are fragile, rare, or carry significant monetary and historical value. To meet these challenges, the museum’s exhibit design team, in collaboration with their architect and product engineers from ActivWall, devised a system of ninety-two display protection panels. 

The custom aluminum panels fitted with glass from PRESS Glass make exhibiting the museum’s treasures safe, secure, and sustainable for years to come.  

Panels in the system alternate between fixed glass panels that are permanently sealed, keeping exhibits visible but secure, and swing doors fitted with custodial locks. The swing doors allow for access by museum staff for curation, maintenance, rotation of exhibits, or emergency removal.

Spanning more than 370 linear feet throughout two floors of the Annex, the modular design of the system allows a uniform appearance (important for visitor experience), predictable maintenance, and the ability to service or replace individual panels if damaged or as display layouts change. 

Once the panels were installed, the curatorial staff moved the King Collection items into place. Many artifacts required cleaning, polishing, and prep, and volunteer teams helped heavily in this phase.

The clean lines of aluminum and glass let light and sightlines flow, keeping displays visible and inviting. Visitors can see into each case clearly, with minimal obstruction, yet the collections are safely enclosed. 

ActivWall specializes in designing and manufacturing custom architectural products for commercial and residential settings nationwide. Contact us today to discuss your custom solution.