I know this isn't a museum, but it's been around a long time and has some interesting minerals exhibited in an usual way.

I've been going to Montreat, NC for over 30 years because my wife's grandmother bought a mountainside house in the early 1950s and her family has a long history there.  She and I were married on the front porch of the family cottage and we had our wedding dinner in the Assembly Inn.

The Assembly Inn was completed in 1924.  The entire building was contructed from native rocks from the Montreat-Black Mountain area.  Since the area had several working mica mines and prospects, much of the stone is pegmatite with mica (muscovite), feldspar, quartz, and kyanite.  The large fireplace contains a lot of kyanite as single blades or in large pegmatite with massive bladed kyanite and muscovite, as does the large massive columns in the room.  It's a must see for rock and mineral folk that are interested in the history of how NC's minerals were used long ago.

The photos below (sorry for the quality, I used my cellphone) show the fireplace, some of the columns, and areas of kyanite and muscovite.

Dennis

Awesome place Dennis! Thanks for showing this to us.