Our museum provides a window on local history for the Raglan Whaingaroa area and adjacent districts.

Construction of the new building was completed in August 2011. The museum reopened to visitors on 12th November 2011. It is open every day.

Displays are will be progressively established over the 2011-2012 period and will cover Maori, settler, farming, surf and extreme sports, art, natural science, photography and town life history. The museum is proud to hold the taiaha of Te Awaitaia, prominent Ngati Mahanga chief and Treaty of Waitangi signatory.

Much of the collection illustrates domestic, rural and town life in Raglan, mainly during the early twentieth century. Items of interest include the doors from the Raglan jail, the first telephone exchange switchboard, the first surf life saving reel and an extensive collection of pharmacy items used by T. B. Hill, the town’s first chemist. There is an extensive photographic collection and many early copies of the town’s newspaper, The Raglan County Chronicle.

The Raglan Museum Society was established in 1966. The first accession was in April 1967, a wooden kitchen clock (Waterbury) over 100-years-old, from Mrs C. Gibbison of Raglan. In 1970 the museum was set up in the small left hand front room in the Raglan Town Hall, and from there it moved to the old fire station building in Wainui Road towards the end of 1982. This building was demolished in the final quarter of 2010 to make way for the new museum building. Construction work on the new building began in late 2010 and was completed in August 2011. The museum opened to the public on 12th November 2011.