Samsun City Museum

Samsun City Museum, a museum located in the Ilkadım district of Samsun. Opened to visitors on 12 February 2013, the museum exhibits information and materials concerning Samsun's social, historical, cultural, geographical and economic structure. The museum attracted 20 thousand visitors in its first seventy days. It was also awarded a special jury prize by the Union of Historic Towns.

In the formation of the museum, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun Local History Group, Alaçam Exchange Museum, Samsunspor, Samsun PTT Main Directorate, Gazi Museum, Düşevi Players Theatre, Tekkeköy Municipality, Yakakent Municipality, Çarşamba Shoemakers Chamber, Kanal S, Halk newspaper, Exchange and Balkan Turkish Culture Research Association, Samsun Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Samsun 6th Region Pharmacists Chamber Presidency shared archives, documents and information.

The museum was among the six most prestigious museums in Europe, reaching the final in the XX Luigi Micheletti Awards organized in 2015.

History

The building in which the museum is located holds an important position in the history of Samsun's railways. In the early years of the Republic, the importance given to railways was likewise extended to railway workers, and housing was allocated to them. The two wooden buildings that form the museum's frame were constructed in 1928 as the Samsun‑Sivas Railway Construction and Operation Administration and State Railway Dormitory. These two‑storey buildings had their ground floors used as offices and the upper floors as housing. The annex building located on Cumhuriyet Avenue was built in 1936 and was used for many years as the premises of Samsun Demirspor. Before the establishment of Samsun Demirspor on 19 February 1945, railway workers in Samsun had founded a club in 1929 under the name Şimendifer SK. When this club took the name Samsun Demirspor in 1945, the annex building was also assigned to the club.

Museum formation

Since 2007, the Samsun Metropolitan Municipality has begun to develop a city museum project. After the "City Museum for Every City" themed meeting of the Union of Historic Towns on 13-15 May 2011, the project accelerated. With the contributions of ÇEKÜL and Metin Sözen, site identification, content provision, and design studies were carried out for the museum. Following the site identification studies, the dormitories belonging to TCDD and the Samsun Demirspor premises were expropriated. After eight months of restoration, decoration and content work was carried out for the building to acquire museum status. On 12 February 2013, the museum was opened to visitors. Within the first seventy days, the museum, which had no official opening ceremony, was visited by 20,000 people.

In 2015, work began to include the bar association building, which is located next to the museum and, like the museum building, has historic characteristics, into the museum.