WARREN — The Trumbull County Historical Society sees the future of its museum dedicated to the movie prop creations of Warren native John Zabrucky in a 120-year-old building near downtown.

The four-story structure at 410 Main Ave. SW last was home to the Artisan Cafe, which opened in 2014, and before that housed various vegetable produce wholesalers, including Cicero’s and Muccio Brothers.

The building is owned by Dale Bell, and it is on the market for $275,000.

“We did scout a few other buildings in the city,” TCHS Executive Director Meghan Reed said. “Our committee, at the end of that process, decided we wanted a building within easy distance of downtown and space where we had the ability to expand in the future and lots of parking. 410 Main meets all of those requirements, and it’s an incredibly old industrial space that has the kind of feel we’re looking for. With four floors, there’s lots of space to work with right off the bat and space to grow if we receive other large donations in the future.”

Zabrucky, a 1965 Warren G. Harding High School graduate, signed a deed of gift in April to donate hundreds of pieces that his company, Modern Props, created for use in film, television and commercials. The items in the collection can be seen in such blockbusters as “Blade Runner,” “Batman Returns,” “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Total Recall,” “Back to the Future II,” “Ghostbusters II,” “Speed,” “Independence Day” and “X-Men.”

TCHS plans to use the donation as the centerpiece of a museum that will focus on science fiction and the arts.

TAKING SHAPE

The direction of the museum and how it might look will start to take shape later this month when Exhibition Concepts — an award-winning design firm that has worked on the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum, the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Computer History Museum — spends two days in Warren.

Reed said a group will be traveling to southern California in late July / early August to meet with Zabrucky, see the collection and shoot interviews and footage that will be used to attract donations and will be incorporated into the exhibitions.

The goal is to ship the collection, a task that will require several semi-trailer trucks due to the scope of the collection and the size of several of the individual pieces, from California to Warren in August.

A professional fundraiser has been hired to help secure donations for the project, which could cost $8 million or more, and Reed said TCHS is researching multiple grants, tax breaks and foundation support that could be available for a project of this type.

Reed said many of these subsequent steps depend on picking and purchasing a site for the museum as soon as possible.

“If we’re not able to secure the building now, all of our conversations with Exhibit Concepts and our planning, it goes out the window if Dale Bell sells this building to somebody else, and we have to start over,” Reed said. “We need to know this is the space we’re using.”

THE BUILDING

The building will require extensive renovations. The top three floors essentially are unfinished, and it will require a freight elevator and an elevator for visitors in order to be ADA compliant. On the plus side, Reed said, the upper floors being wide open provide a blank canvas for designing exhibition spaces, and the first floor has been renovated, which would allow organizers to host pop-ups to attract donors and build interest shortly after the collection arrives.

TCHS is trying to get the bulk of the $275,000 needed for the building purchase by getting Warren City Council members to commit $25,000 from the American Rescue Plan money that each council member controls to the project, which would be $225,000 if all nine supported it.

Reed gave a tour of the building last Wednesday in which Warren Safety Service Director Eddie Colbert and councilmen Andrew Herman, D-2nd Ward, and Ronald White Sr., D-7th Ward, took part.

Colbert praised Bell for taking good care of the building, which has been unused for several years, and the project.

“This creates a nice extension from downtown,” Colbert said. “We’ve seen the millions and millions that have been spent downtown, and the objective now is to grow that out. This is a connection to our downtown and a way to connect some of those dots … I don’t have a say in it, I’m not a councilman anymore, but I think it’s a good opportunity.”

Herman said he would earmark $25,000 of his ARP funds to the project.

“I think the potential is huge for the project on many levels — economic development, science education, arts education, tying in with a local who’s made it big and celebrating what he’s done,” Herman said. “It could be the start of something big as well as an added attraction to what the city has been doing downtown.”

White was more cautious in his support.

“It has a lot of potential, but it’s going to cost a lot of money,” White said. “I have a little (uncommitted ARP funds) but I don’t have much. I’ve been spending in my ward. I wouldn’t mind trying to put something in with some of the other council members, but I can’t say how much.”