An event that happened two years ago in Jefferson has sparked a renewed effort to broaden the horizons to bring even more joy to the public.

In June of 2024, Barbie By The Bells was originally done as a tourism attraction, where 600 dolls were on display, in their originally sealed boxes, at the former Sensibly Chic building on the south side of the downtown square. An estimated 1,900 people visited that represented 34 states and six countries. 

Now, Jan Rosdail-Aegerter, who is part of the Barbie Dream Team, says the internationally known doll is back and bigger than ever. 

Earlier this year, the Greene County Historical Society purchased the adjoining building west of the Greene County Museum in Jefferson as a way to expand its displays and create more storage. Rosdail-Aegerter points out, shortly after the purchase, the Barbie Dream Team went to work renovating the new space to create a larger Barbie display that has reached about 1,000 dolls. 

Sue Richardson is another member of the Barbie Dream Team and she talks about some of the improvements that were made to the building.

“We had to keep adding shelving. We purchased shelving, we made shelving, we just had to find places to set all of those dolls. We had to use very creative ideas and spacing to get those dolls in that space.” 

Rosdail-Aegerter gives lots of credit to bringing the unique design of the “Barbified” interior to Rita Hessen.

“She was great about decorating spaces (including) hanging things, and she spent hours. We never knew what Rita was going to come up with. And painting, she had tons of things she painted hot pink (including) lamps, and tables, and other things that she placed in there.”  

Rosdail-Aegerter invites everyone to the initial “sneak peek” of the new display following tomorrow’s Java and Juice with Jefferson Matters at 9:30am at the museum. She details that there will be a ribbon-cutting to follow, around 10am, and afterwards, attendees can venture inside to see the changes.