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To the untrained eye there is little indication that construction workers are in the home stretch of the $10 million expansion of the Kentucky Derby Museum.
Windowless areas are dark, except for splashes of illumination from spotlights used by laborers building exhibits, painting walls and pillars, laying carpet or installing fixtures. At any moment the cacophony of hammers, saws and drills are reduced to murmurs during sound checks for the "Greatest Race" multivideo production that will be shown in an as-yet unfinished theater.
But those in the know promise that all is in order for the party next Thursday evening to celebrate the museum's new exhibits and the public opening the next day,
"We are on schedule," said Lynn Ashton, executive director of the Derby Museum. "I have watched this thing take shape. I am amazed at the difference every day makes."
The museum has been closed since December to give planners and workers space for the first major overhaul since opening its doors in 1984.
No corner of the building, which was expanded 10,000 square feet to 57,000 square feet, has gone untouched, "It has all changed," Ashton said. "You are not going to know us when you come here."
Although the display areas have been dark for three months, the remodeled gift shop has been back in business since...