FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: March 4, 2018
MEDIA CONTACT: Eric Metzger Museum Executive Director 720.447.8600 | mcallister.director@gmail.com
SUBJECT: Eric Metzger joins the McAllister House Museum as Executive Director
COLORADO SPRINGS –The McAllister House Museum is pleased to announce that Eric Metzger has been hired as the organization’s first Executive Director. Mr. Metzger brings with him over 20 years of museum experience, most recently as the Museum Services Director at the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. The Executive Director position at the McAllister House was facilitated by a multi-year operating grant from El Pomar Foundation. In this new position, Mr. Metzger is charged with bringing greater visibility to the McAllister House Museum and implementing the organization’s strategic vision. Mr. Metzger will also be spearheading new marketing, and development initiatives for the organization.
Mr. Metzger has spent most of his life along the Front Range preserving and interpreting cultural resources in both non-profit and for-profit organizations. As an archaeologist and a museum professional, he has been associated with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Lamanai Field Research Center (Belize), the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard, and the Robbins Museum of Archaeology. “I’m very pleased to be home in Colorado and working for the McAllister House Museum which has demonstrated such a strong passion for preserving and interpreting Pikes Peak regional history for more than 50 years,” said Mr. Metzger. “I look forward to getting out into the community and engaging with the public about our history here in Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region. We are fortunate to have had strong founding families, such as the McAllisters, who built and shaped our region into what it is today, and we need to continue to honor their legacy.”
The McAllister House Museum is a National Historic Landmark that has been owned and operated by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Colorado (NSCDA in CO) since 1961. “Our organization’s primary interest is in preserving the house as a major part of Colorado Springs history” says NSCDA in CO McAllister House Chairperson Terry Thatcher. “I very much appreciate the commitment shown to this goal by El Pomar Foundation, making it possible for us to hire a qualified museum professional such as Mr. Metzger as our new Executive Director.
In 1862, Henry McAllister volunteered for service in the Civil War and served under General Palmer in the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry achieving the rank of major. The House was built in 1873 for Major McAllister and his family and is the oldest brick house in Colorado Springs. It was designed by architect George Summers and the woodwork was done by Winfield Scott Stratton.
The McAllister House is located at 423 N. Cascade Avenue, in Colorado Springs one block west of the downtown business district and near Colorado College and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. For general museum information visit www.mcallisterhouse.org or call 719-635-7925. For further inquiries or partnership opportunities at the McAllister House Museum, please contact Eric Metzger at mcallister.director@gmail.com.
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