corner of Second and Liberty Streets in Winona, Minnesota. Purchased in 1977 by Rev. Paul J. Breza, its intended purpose was to be a museum-storage area for the “Committee for Polish Affairs” – later known as the Polish Heritage Society. Aborted by its parent organization shortly after its inception, it went on with a truncated membership who patched, painted, plumbed and plastered a lumber yard o
ffice building – turned into a printing company – into a museum of fine instrumentality for exhibition of Polish immigrant history. The upper floor of the museum houses a supposedly temporary archive of the Diocese of Winona -again an even older and more eclectic collection of the original purchaser. The museum itself is now owned entirely as a corporation gifted to an ever evolving board of directors. Their efforts all voluntary, the museum has a tiny budget as compared to other institutions its size. Winona was literally built by the Polish. It was the lumber industry moving across the Midwest that brought jobs to this river town. Along with the lumber boom came the Polish immigrants. The Museum celebrate the leaders as well as the working man in this Polish community. "Winona, MN is a city with a strong Polish heritage... The Polish Cultural Institute and Museum...identifies and celebrates the ethnic background of a third of the city's citizens." Picture Magazine, Minneapolis Tribune.
