Historic Germantown — the consortium of 20 museums, houses, and other historic sites in Northwest Philadelphia — works to preserve these assets and increase access for visitors. Through a wide variety of programming, the organization is always looking to enhance the visitor experience. Now, with the new Historic Germantown Visitor Center opening on July 9, guests have a new way to discover the full breadth of what the neighborhood has to offer.

For Tuomi Forrest, executive director of Historic Germantown, the visitor center fills a long-standing need for a centralized destination for guests to begin their journey through the historic community.

“There really had been no place in Germantown, or in Northwest Philly more broadly, where a visitor or neighbor or anyone in that area could come and get an overview and understanding of the history of this part of the world,” Forrest told the Local. “It’s ramping it up to the next couple levels in terms of dedicating a space … to meet today’s needs and goals.”

The concept of a visitor center for Historic Germantown has been a topic of discussion for many years. According to Forrest, the closest the neighborhood might have gotten was in 1983 (the 300th anniversary of Germantown), when a temporary version of a visitor center was introduced.

Plans for the current iteration began to solidify a year and a half ago, when Forrest said the organization applied for funding from the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial. Additional funding for the $100,000 project was secured through the City of Philadelphia and private donors.

The visitor center will be located at 5501 Germantown Ave. in the newly enhanced and expanded Germantown Historical Society building. In the center there will be two exhibitions (one permanent and one rotating) and a gift shop selling books and other merchandise.

According to Forrest, the visitor center will serve “two interrelated functions.” First, it will be a jumping-off point for visitors to explore the neighborhood and build an itinerary around their interests. Since Germantown is home to sites covering a vast array of historical and cultural themes, the visitor center will help narrow down which sites might best appeal to guests. Second, the visitor center will be an experience in and of itself as guests explore the exhibits.

The permanent exhibition is called “Deeply Rooted, Ever Changing: 300 Years in Germantown.” Tracing more than three centuries of transformation, the exhibit highlights the evolution of Germantown from its founding through the abolitionist movement, the Industrial Revolution, and the Civil Rights Movement. Items on display include decorative arts, advertisements, household items, a 1730s rooster-shaped weathervane from the German Reformed Church in Market Square, and a surveyor’s compass designed by American astrologer and mathematician David Rittenhouse.

“A lot of history-based exhibits have too much text,” Forrest said. “This is very digestible and understandable. It really allows folks to understand the history of protest and activism from the 1688 protest against slavery — the first of its type — and the colonies, to contemporary activism or civil rights activism in the ’60s and ’70s.”

The rotating exhibition, “Rebellion and Remembrance in Freedom’s Backyard,” examines Germantown’s role in the American Revolution and how the events of that era shaped the neighborhood’s identity for generations to come. Among the exhibit’s highlights is a section of the historic Johnson House fence damaged during the Battle of Germantown, accompanied by a video simulation illustrating how the damage occurred during the conflict. This exhibit will run through Dec. 1, 2027.

According to Forrest, most of the objects in the exhibits were taken from the Germantown Historical Society collections and have not been on display before.

“Even people that have been associated with the historical society or Historic Germantown for years or decades have not seen these objects,” Forrest said.

Even for Northwest Philadelphia locals, Forrest said the new visitor center is worth checking out.

“We expect our number-one constituency to be people that live in Northwest Philadelphia, the original German Township, which is Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, and Germantown,” Forrest said. “Folks that live or work or visit Northwest Philadelphia should stop by, and even if they’ve lived here their entire lives, they’ll learn something new, I guarantee it.”

The Historic Germantown Visitor Center at 5501 Germantown Ave. will be open Thursdays through Saturdays from 12-4 p.m. Learn more at historicgermantownpa.org.

Maggie Dougherty can be reached at Margaret@chestnuthilllocal.com.