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Seattle's Museum of History and Industry to host grand opening

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Tomorrow is a big day for Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry. The museum is hosting a grand opening at its new location near South Lake Union in the former Naval Reserve Armory. The museum will be free all day, with special events like musical performances and craft activities.

Leonard Garfield, executive director of the museum known as MOHAI, says they’ve greatly expanded their collection.

"Lots of new things that have never been seen before dating back to the earliest years of human settlement in the Puget Sound area - artifacts associated with our Native American heritage - and things all the way up to the recent era, including the first sign that Starbucks ever had as a sandwich board on the sidewalk," Garfield said.

The museum also includes a lot of old film footage, including movies made by Thomas Edison in the 1890s showing Seattle’s downtown bustling with people heading north for the Gold Rush.

MOHAI’s move to the new location has been years in the making and the total project cost is $90 million. The state has paid for part of it because the museum was displaced from its old location by the 520 bridge project. MOHAI is still raising money to cover the last few million dollars of its move. Garfield says he hopes to finish raising that money in the next few months.

In July 2017, Ashley Gross became KNKX's youth and education reporter after years of covering the business and labor beat. She joined the station in May 2012 and previously worked five years at WBEZ in Chicago, where she reported on business and the economy. Her work telling the human side of the mortgage crisis garnered awards from the Illinois Associated Press and the Chicago Headline Club. She's also reported for the Alaska Public Radio Network in Anchorage and for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.