PHILOMATH - Overhead lights automatically flicked on as Ron Thiesen walked into a cavernous room, an empty space bigger than a high school gymnasium. He spread his arms wide in a grand gesture.

"This is it," said Thiesen, development director for the Benton County Historical Society and Museum. "This is going to be shelving, wall to wall, floor to ceiling."

The room is where some 95,000 artifacts will be kept, and is the heart of a new $2.5 million collections care facility adjacent to the museum in Philomath.

The public will get a chance to check out the 13,500-square-foot building on Wednesday, when it will be open for public tours from noon to 4 p.m.

The building will be closed to the public starting in mid-January, when office equipment and shelving starts arriving.

"We are going to start moving in artifacts as soon as possible," said Irene Zenev, executive director of the historical society and museum. "The next six months, we're really in the moving mode."

The facility is needed because the historical society is taking possession of the 60,000-item Horner Collection. The Benton County Historical Museum, at 1101 Main St., was nearly out of room for its own 35,000-item collection.

The Horner Museum, which offered a bit of everything and anything, from glowing rocks to a giant stuffed moose, was housed in the basement of Gill Coliseum. It was mothballed by Oregon State University due to budget cuts in 1995, and the historical society has worked for nearly a decade to transfer the items.

John B. Horner, the college professor who created the OSU museum, was the most famous graduate of Philomath College - the building that is now the headquarters of the Benton County Historical Society and Museum.

The historical society also is continuing fundraising for a new museum in downtown Corvallis. Space there would be devoted solely to exhibits, which will include Horner items, rather than storage of artifacts. That building still is "at least a couple years away," Zenev said. "We're not even concentrating on that yet because we need to move the collections," she said.

The new collections care facility has separate areas for item care and exhibit preparation, and also includes an "arsenic room" with a separate ventilation system to deal with the stuffed and preserved critters from the Horner Collection.

The museum is still fundraising to pay for the cost of the building. About $1 million more still needs to be gathered, Zenev said.

Kyle Odegard can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.

AT A GLANCE

The Benton County Historical Society's new 13,500-square-foot collections care building will be open for public tours from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The facility is adjacent to the historical society's museum, 1101 Main St. in Philomath.