I checked up recently on a renovation project that is going on at one of the area’s lesser-known museums. And it’s pleasing to report that the Schubert Club’s Museum of Musical Instruments and Manuscripts is on schedule for a grand re-opening on Nov. 20.

The origin of the museum goes back nearly 30 years to a collection of keyboard instruments that were put on display in the lower level of Landmark Center.

In those days, people attending recitals in Landmark’s Weyerhaeuser Auditorium sometimes took a wrong turn in a basement hallway and discovered a room containing keyboard treasures ranging from a pentagonal spinet built in 1542 to a 1935 Art Deco Wurlitzer piano.

The collection expanded a few years later when Bill Kugler, who had been operating a private instrument museum adjacent to his home in Roseville, donated a huge and varied collection of instruments to the Schubert Club. At about the same time, philanthropist Gilman Ordway contributed a collection of musical manuscripts and letters, including correspondence from Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner and others.

Until now, the Schubert Club’s museum has been split between two floors in Landmark Center. But in May, work began on a new gallery that will house everything in one place while also being accessible to larger audiences, such as school groups.

“The Schubert Club has two major constituencies - concert audiences and participants in education programs - and we would like to use the museum to pull those components together,” said Kathleen van Bergen, executive director of the organization.

The new museum will have interactive elements, such as replicas of historic instruments that visitors can play. The instrument exhibit will be “sequential,” starting with examples of keyboard evolution and continuing through electronic and experimental instruments. A small area will accommodate recitals for audiences of about 50 people, van Bergen said.

Visitors will be able to do some wandering. “But it will still be a priority to use personally guided tours with docents,” van Bergen added.

Best of all, admission will continue to be free. Until the new space is finished, the Schubert Club’s lower-level gallery remains open. For information, go here.