Melba Valley Museum

Melba was established back in 1912. The Todd family purchased 160 acres of land and was instrumental in the development of the valley. The name of the town came from the Todd's daughter - Melba. To learn more about Melba, the Gardner hotel and several other historical points of interest, stop by the Melba Valley Museum. The museum is open May through October on Saturdays from 11 to 3.

The building that is now the Museum was originally a hotel/boardinghouse built in 1919 and operated by the Gardner family. Mary Gardner and her daughter, Iva Sturm, were responsible for day-to-day operation of the hotel.  There was a dining room and kitchen on the first floor, and rooms upstairs.  They were so busy in those years that you can see where they built an addition to make a total of 15 bedrooms. In the 1920s there was a building boom in the area and the guys who were working on the ditches, canals and building the roads needed places to stay. The Gardners gave them that place to stay.

In January, 2024, the Melba Valley Museum building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The NRHP recognizes buildings and structures for their historic value, in this case for the building’s importance to Melba history as one of the oldest extant buildings in the community. Built in 1919 as the Gardner Hotel, the building is most-closely associated with the International Order of Oddfellows (IOOF) and its allied women’s organization – Rebekahs – who occupied the structure for nearly 70 years before donating it to the Melba Valley Historical Society in 2013 for use as a local history museum.

Madge Cook Wylie

Tina Montgomery Taylor