Elliot Steeves, Staff Writer
Oct 14, 2026
Reprinted with permission
The Anoka County Historical Society found a new home at the Heman L. Ticknor House after considering options ranging from downtown storefronts to an entirely digital collection. Now, the society is working to find storage for artifacts that won’t fit in the historic house.
The society bought the house in May and began welcoming guests in September, continuing its operation as a bed-and-breakfast while developing a new approach to sharing Anoka County’s history.
The relocation was prompted by the city’s proposed $60 million mixed-use redevelopment at Second Avenue and Van Buren Street, the site of the former Anoka library building that has housed the society.
The Anoka City Council unanimously approved zoning changes and a conditional use permit March 2 allowing the society to move its offices and research library to Ticknor House while continuing its bed-and-breakfast operation. The house was built in 1867 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The society’s museum will not be housed there.
Rebecca Ebnet-Desens, the society’s executive director, said the search for a new home initially included several alternatives to its brick building off Main Street in downtown Anoka.
“The idea of going all digital actually was really high on the list, especially for kind of a reorganization,” Ebnet-Desens said. “But the more we considered being all digital, the more we realized it would be a real detriment to our volunteers and to the researchers that needed the physical touch, the students that needed a solid place to land.”
After deciding to keep a physical location, the society considered larger spaces that could accommodate the same functions as its existing building. That could have meant moving to East Bethel or Lino Lakes and leaving behind its downtown Anoka identity.
Some strip malls and warehouses offered enough space but required investments the society couldn’t afford, Ebnet-Desens said. Those options would have required a new fundraising strategy, with the society risking closure if the effort failed.
A downtown storefront offered another possibility within the society’s existing budget. But renting would have provided only about 1,100 square feet, forcing a choice between a research library and an exhibition hall.
It also would have placed the society among coffee shops, stores and bars, where visitors might be more interested in browsing than researching.
“You’re in that mode,” Ebnet-Desens said. “You’re not in a research mode. So that means that we would have needed to be a person with fun things on display, and we wouldn’t have had space for volunteers or researchers or offices.”
The society receives 500 to 700 research requests annually. Losing space for that work made a storefront difficult to justify.
Ebnet-Desens said the society realized it needed to rethink how a historical museum could operate instead of trying to fit its existing model into a new building.
AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY
Then Ticknor House came on the market.
“And we all thought that we were nuts, but yet, we all got excited about it,” Ebnet-Desens said. “But it was terrifying. But it was exciting. And so we were all wrestling with varying degrees of excitement and disbelief and fear at the same time.”
Owners Deb and Dave Wallace were eager to discuss the property with the society. Together, they developed a business plan that supported both the finances and Ebnet-Desens’ vision for the move.
“It was that kind of moment where you just kind of sat there and you’re like, well, didn’t see that one coming,” Ebnet-Desens said. “Because you don’t. As a nonprofit, you’re trained by the world to use secondhand furniture and hand me downs and make do what you can with what you have.”
The purchase offered a chance to preserve a historic house while making it a community landmark and demonstrating a different way to share history.
Ebnet-Desens said guests often decline additional information about the house’s preservation and the historical society when they check in. By the time they leave, their interest has grown.
“Because they walk in the door and they see it and they hear the story and they hear about the historical society, and they’ve gotten a taste of what the collection is because we’re integrating it into their stay,” she said.
That opening preceded what Ebnet-Desens described as a “bonkers” October.
The Wallaces retired this year after operating the house as a bed-and-breakfast for 30 years. Ebnet-Desens praised their interior and exterior maintenance, decorating and installation of brick walkways.
FINDING ROOM FOR THE COLLECTION
The society’s work centers on three pillars: programming, including outreach and research; collections; and volunteers.
At Ticknor House, volunteers work on the first floor beneath the bed-and-breakfast. Exhibits will be spread across multiple locations.
“The collection itself is the other problematic fish at the moment,” Ebnet-Desens said. “There isn’t space at the house to store the collection.”
The society has lined up space on the top floor of the Northtown library and identified additional space at Green Haven Golf Course, where a lease remains in draft form.
It is still seeking storage for 12 powder-coated metal cabinets containing its textile collection.
Each cabinet is about 6 feet tall.
Larger objects, including a reed organ and a kayak, also need space.
“We are on a different path now,” Ebnet-Desens said. “And it’s an exciting path.”
As the society works through the transition, the house offers oral history retreats and opportunities to connect visitors with history through features such as a garden with heritage plants.
The society also plans to use its website to help people incorporate history into their own lives.
“Everybody that steps foot into Ticknor, the conversation stops, and people look up and around,” Ebnet-Desens said. “And there’s that moment of, Oh, wow. And they take it in, they see the building, and they feel the building as something, in a way that nobody walking into that old city library ever did.”