The Treehouse Museum sees about 180,000 patrons per year. About 50,000 more than they projected they would have when they opened at their location in the Ogden Junction 11 years ago. Treehouse Director, Lynne Goodwin, said they realized how popular their new location was fairly soon after they opened in the spot and started talking about expanding three or four years ago.

Now that expansion is looking to happen in the near future. Goodwin said they hope to expand to the west and buy some of the property owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The church recently announced plans to build and open a FamilySearch Discovery Center in the space west of the Treehouse. Currently the space is an open field. Goodwin said the church has been very open to them buying the space, about one quarter acre, which would take about one-third of the space there. Goodwin said it would still leave plenty of space for the FamilySearch Center. The Treehouse would also use the parking space that is currently theirs directly west of the Treehouse. The expansion would give them an additional 30,000 square feet.

Cheri Walker sits on The Treehouse board and said the plans are super exciting. “There will be some really cool green space in between and it’s going to be really neat,” Walker said. “There are some great things planned,” she added.

Goodwin agrees. She said in their old location they had some fun garden space that they would love to see return at their current location. “The problem we have had is the noise because it is a busy street. We think we may be able to work something out with this new space,” Goodwin said.

But that’s not all that will come from the expansion. The Treehouse plans to add a private music room, art garden and additional classroom space for the over 24,000 school children they see every year. Goodwin said their list is long for school fieldtrips and they can only run one school group at a time with the space they have. Goodwin noted they have requests not only from local school groups, but from schools a bit farther away and they would like to accommodate everyone. “We love our school groups,” Goodwin said.

Another key to the expansion would include a freight elevator, which they don’t currently have. Goodwin said when they get traveling exhibits the lack of a freight elevator is a real problem. “We need a whole football team to unload exhibits,” she said with a laugh. “It’s quite a task to carry things up the stairs,” she added. They would also be able to have a more reserved space for those popular traveling exhibits.

Goodwin said they haven’t officially kicked off their capital campaign to raise the funds, but did make an official announcement that the expansion is planned. “We have been quietly talking but haven’t officially launched the capital campaign,” Goodwin said. They have a very good friend of the Treehouse that has offered to buy the land, which will kick off the campaign. “We are so grateful for this donor’s generosity,” she said.

They are just waiting to officially sign the paperwork with the LDS Church, although verbal agreements have been made. Once paperwork is officially signed there will need to be soil tests and more official plans drawn up. In the past, in-kind donations have been very helpful and Goodwin is hoping those in-kind donors will step forward for many aspects of the expansion. “We are very frugal with our funds…we don’t plan to spend more than $5 or $6 million,” she added. She has always been impressed with the generosity of the community and hope that continues with this project.