New Site — Jonathan Halsey, Town Manager Bryan Edwards and Rob Mangum pause for a photo at the future location of the new Teapot Museum. In the background is near N.C. 18 (Whitehead Street) and Downtown Sparta.

Teapot project has contract on site

The site of the future Sparta Teapot Museum is under contract, chairman Rob Mangum and the board of directors announced this week.

After months of looking at different properties and negotiating, the museum's board of directors chose 5.2 acres on Whitehead Street and signed a contract for purchase, said Jonathan Halsey, project coordinator.

The property is about a block from Main Street and has frontage on four downtown streets.

“We've been working on this for five or six months. We looked at several different sites and an important criterion was its proximity to Main Street, how close it was to the heart of downtown,” he said.

“We’re very satisfied... We’re very confident we made the best decision for the project.”

The museum will house the teapot collection of Sonny and Gloria Kamm, a couple from Encino, Calif. who wanted to help revitalize a small community by establishing a museum.

Their collection of more than 10,000 teapots includes antique, artist-made and production works.

The board has assembled property for the museum at a total cost of $750,000, Halsey said. The property will be bought with private funds that come from fundraising efforts.

The site includes several adjoining lots owned by Gil Thadani of Sparta and Dean Millikan of Laurel Springs. The board of directors hopes to set a closing date in a few days, he added

The site has high-visibility frontage on Whitehead (N.C. 18 South), Womble, Doughton and Evergreen streets. It includes property now occupied by Tri-State Components.

Besides its proximity to Main Street, the property was appealing for some other reasons, Halsey said. One was its size.

“Sonny and Gloria Kamm, the board of directors, and the design team envisioned this museum as being campus-like, instead of being one building,” he said.

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