Museum of East Alabama

Located in the heart of the historic district in Opelika, Lee County, the Museum of East Alabama houses more than 5,000 artifacts relating to the rural, business, and architectural heritage of Chambers, Lee, Macon, Tallapoosa and Russell Counties. Founders Eleanor and John T. Harris led the effort to establish the museum in Opelika, where the couple spent their summers. The Harrises had earlier worked to build a museum in McCook, Nebraska, Eleanor's hometown where the Harris family spent winters. Appeals in local papers for donations resulted in a large number of items. The couple installed them in an old hardware store that had been given rent free for three years by Andrew Story Sr. Yetta Samford then donated the building next door, resulting in approximately 10,000 square feet of display and storage space. The museum opened in August 1989 and completed a major $100,000 renovation in the summer of 2010; changes include the addition of interactive displays and new lighting. The museum welcomes more than 2,000 visitors a year.

All of the permanent exhibits in the Museum of East Alabama contain artifacts donated by local citizens or by people with connections to the area, including space shuttle memorabilia donated by Opelika native and NASA astronaut Jim Voss. As part of the renovation, the museum's artifacts have been divided into six collections to better tell the story of the region. The exhibits focus on homelife, work, military conflict, transportation, leisure activities, and people and generally chronicle the many societal changes that took place during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in east Alabama. This exhibit concept was developed by students in the Department of Industrial Design at Auburn University and makes use of the current space with separate display areas for each collection.