Share
Charlotte's Billy Graham Library, which opened just over two years ago, will temporarily close early next year for upgrades and improvements.
The museum-like library chronicling the life of the Charlotte-born evangelist is scheduled to close at 5 p.m. Jan. 9 and reopen April 1. The library grounds, including Billy Graham's boyhood home and the gravesite of Ruth Bell Graham, his wife of 63 years, will remain open to visitors.
Renovation work on the library will include improvements in sound, said spokeswoman Lauren Horton. There's currently no sound barrier, for example, between an exhibit featuring a replica of Graham's 1949 tent crusade in Los Angeles and an adjacent one - "Ruth's Room" - focusing on Graham's wife, who grew up the daughter of Presbyterian medical missionaries in China.
"Right now, the sounds are bleeding (together)," Horton said. "It's one of those things we were seeing, as people came through the library, that needed to be fixed."
Among the planned enhancements: More video offerings in an exhibit centering on Graham's years as a radio and TV preacher.
Horton said ITEC Entertainment Corp., which helped design and produce the library, has been hired to handle the improvements.
A theme-park design and production company, ITEC has also worked on The Holy Land Experience in Orlando; Gatorland Zoo, also in Florida; Euro Disney Water Park in France; and Batman-the Ride at Six Flags Parks.
Also, Horton said, additional items from Graham's personal collection will be added in the exhibits. She said it's too early to say what those would be.
No employees will be laid off during the closing, Horton said, though some part-timers may be temporarily reassigned to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association next door.
In February, the BGEA announced it was laying off 55 employees as part of a restructuring and to save money during the economic recession.
Horton could not say how much the upgrades and improvements will cost.
The library, which opened in June 2007, cost $27 million to build and furnish.
More than 165,000 people from all 50 states and 41 countries walked through it during its first year, making the library one of Charlotte's top tourist attractions.
