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LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- Last fall, the Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys lost it home due to rising rent prices in our growing Colorado but after eight months, the museum has found a new home in Lakewood.
Movers loaded up hundreds of antique dollhouses and bases outside the museum's location in Denver's Uptown neighborhood last October.
Since then, more than three centuries of history have been locked up and hidden in temporary storage.
"We have eleven storage spaces all over town," said museum board president Barbara Pontarelli. "I know how much work this will be, but I don't care - it's so exciting."
The museum purchased a new location in Lakewood, located at 830 Kipling St.
"Our new forever home," said vice president of the board Judi Hamilton. "We would have loved to have stayed in Denver, but the prices in Denver and the parking in Denver is just astronomical."
Hamilton said the museum had been on a year-to-year lease in Denver until History Colorado informed them they wanted to do something different with the lease.
The board and volunteers plan to turn the old office building in Lakewood into its forever home, with several renovations already in the works. The new location also has more space than the old historic home where it called home in Denver's Uptown neighborhood for more than 30 years.
"We own it, we never have to hear the words, 'you have to move.' We don't ever want to have to pack up and go into storage again," said Hamilton.
Even though it's just outside the city, the museum plans to keep its name.
"Changing locations is a big enough adjustment, but changing names then we'd be starting back at the beginning," said Pontarelli.
The Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys hopes to open the first phase of the museum to the public by the end of the year and will post updates on its website.