Located in the heart of downtown Winona, the Winona County History Center is made up of the old Armory (1915) and the contemporary Laird Norton Addition, and houses three floors of exhibits, The Museum Shop, multiple programing and event spaces, the Laird Lucas Library and Archives and more!

As visitors explore they will find carriages, wagons, horse-drawn fire equipment and sleighs filling our “Main Street.” Open to view are Bailey and Bailey Dry Goods, a Blacksmith Shop, Pharmacy, Dentist, and the robbery-proof Security State Bank from the days of Bonnie and Clyde. At the History Center’s “Once Upon A Time” exhibit, children and the young at heart are invited to walk and crawl through a three section hands-on exhibit introducing topics dear to every child’s heart: a cave, a Native American tipi, and a steamboat with an upper deck pilot house.

Upstairs, The Winona County Time-Line exhibit encompasses the entire 2,500-square-foot balcony gallery. Visitors will find local history examined in a breezy and honest fashion. Beginning with the area’s bedrock formation as the bed of an inland sea, visitors learn how the region’s dramatic topography resulted from its unique position in the “driftless area” during the Ice Ages. The story of human habitation includes the museum’s collection of native weapons, beadwork and artifacts that follow the story into the most recent decades, including the flooding of August 2007. 

The Center's lower level house an extensive archives and beautiful photography exhibit on area Prairie School Architecture.