MIDDLETON — Plans to move the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum to a historic building in Middleton are getting an overhaul after a wall collapsed during the renovation this week.

The new, more interactive mustard museum, still is expected to open at Hubbard Avenue and Parmenter Street in November, but in a new building rather than a renovated historic one.

The idea is to build the new museum using the original designs approved by the city and incorporating as much of the historic brick — which dates to 1866 — as possible, said Middleton Mayor Kurt Sonnentag.

The building’s bricks, which were stained red about 60 years ago, were originally the same cream color as the bricks in the historic opera house across the street, he said.

On Tuesday, a 30-foot section of a basement wall on the building’s Hubbard Avenue side caved in, depositing rock, sand and soil in the middle of the basement while the construction crew was on site.

There were no injuries, but the workers “could have easily been buried in the debris as (the wall) caved in,” Middleton Administrator Mike Davis said.

Davis said three structural engineers looked at the building after the collapse and determined it was unsafe to renovate.
The original plans called for the renovated building to cost an estimated $1.8 million, including $1.4 million of city money. The new building is expected to cost more, but just how much has notbeen determined.

In October the Middleton City Council also approved $50,000 in relocation costs to bring the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum to Middleton.

Officials say the city financing still applies, as the money was approved to rehab that entire commercial area and bring the mustard museum to the city, not just to renovate the historic building.

“We still want the mustard museum in Middleton,” Sonnentag said.