Yup, that is our museum. Thanks for the kudos.

The museum first opened up in Highlands, NC, in 1988. At the time we were a one-room museum gallery with no gift shop to speak of. After a few years, we moved to Franklin, into the Burrell building, that you spoke of. The original intent was for the entire building to be used to house the Scottish Tartans Museum, but because it was town property, and politics being what they are, in the end the Police department was assigned to the lower floor of the building, the museum was able to use half of the upper level, with the other half of the upper level being used for meeting space (that the museum did get to use when needed). In other words, though our space was greater than what we had in Highlands, it was still not as large as we needed (we had 2400 square feet). That was 1994.

So in 1999 we relocated again. Space opened up in the building across the street from us -- an historic downtown building, about 120 years old or so. We were able to get space in two floors of this building, giving us 4800 square feet. The upstairs store front we used for our newly expanded gift shop (easily four times larger than our previous gift shop). The level below the gift shop we used for our museum gallery. And we also had the space beneath the shop next to ours, which we use for offices and storage.

Anyway, there you have a little mini-history of the museum. Hope to see you next time you are in the area!
Matt