The Sumter County Museum explores historical experiences through programs and exhibits that allow all of us to inform and shape our future. The Museum has grown over the years from its origins in the Williams-Brice house to comprise the Martha Brice Gardens, Carolina Backcountry Homestead, the Heritage Education Center with McKenzie Hall as well as the new, award-winning Temple Sinai Jewish History Center.

The most recent addition to the Museum, the Temple Sinai Jewish History Center, tells the story of Sumter's Jewish community and its place in the larger story of the Jewish diaspora in America. The Center features a moving permanent Holocaust exhibition and Ackerman Hall, a multi-use space for traveling exhibitions and cultural events, as well as Temple Sinai itself, one of the nation's oldest Reform congregations.

The other three components of the Sumter County Museum are the historic Williams-Brice House dating to 1916, the modern Heritage Education Center, and the Carolina Backcountry Homestead, an assemblage of late 18th to early 19th century structures relocated from around the area that allow visitors to get a feel for what a one family farm may have looked like in this part of SC around 1750-1850.

Through workshops, book signings, lectures, family programs, community involvement, and hands-on history events, the Sumter County Museum provides an engaging educational experience to visitors of all ages.

Temple Sinai exterior view

Temple Sinai Jewish History Center opened in 2018 as part of a joint effort between the congregation of Temple Sinai and Sumter County Museum…
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Brice House front view

Stroll through our gates to enter the elegantly restored Williams Brice House, an Edwardian house built in 1916 by the . . .
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Heritage Education Center front view

The Heritage Education Center was built in 2003 as a facility to host programs, classes, and traveling exhibits and to store some of our permanent…
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Stroll across the lawn to our Carolina BackCountry Homestead, a recreated homestead playing host to our living history events. Included in our…
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Friends of the Museum

Help preserve the historical heritage of Old Sumter District . . .
Invest in historical education, preservation, and interpretation . . .
Help create living history . . .
Keep money in the local economy . . .
Embrace what makes us unique . . .
Nurture our community . . .
Benefit from our expertise . . .
Keep downtown healthy and vibrant . . .
Help make Sumter a destination!

THANK YOU!

Become a Member

Join us and invest in historical education, preservation, and interpretation

The Sumter County Museum is a private non-profit institution whose mission is to promote the history of Old Sumter District through the preservation and exhibition of objects, manuscripts, and documents, which relate the story of this area of South Carolina.

STAFF

Annie Rivers
Executive Director
arivers@sumtercountymuseum.org

Jena Thompson Hough
Operations Manager
jthough@sumtercountymuseum.org

Diana Roof
Outreach Director & JHC Site Manager
droof@sumtercountymuseum.org

Deborah Watts
Historic House Manager
information@sumtercountymuseum.org

Whit Blanton
Facility Maintenance & Groundskeeper
wblanton@sumtercountymuseum.org

Tracy Miller
Director of Development
tmiller@sumtercountymuseum.org

Leeam Stein
Assistant Curator
lstein@sumtercountymuseum.org

Michael Bowman
Museum Assistant
mbowman@sumtercountymuseum.org

Charles Broadwell
Curator Emeritus
charlesb@ftc-i.net