The History Museum of Mobile will operate and manage the Africatown Heritage House and “Clotilda: The Exhibition” under a three-year lease agreement the Mobile County Commission approved Monday.

The agreement includes two optional consecutive one-year extensions. It also requires Mobile County to provide up to $50,000 a year for operating the exhibit if the fees the museum collects (entrance, merchandise sales, etc.) are insufficient.

Officials are not anticipating that will happen. The 5,000-square-foot museum located in the heart of the Africatown neighborhood adjacent to the Robert L. Hope Community Center was named by National Geographic last month as the No. 1 most anticipated museum set to open in 2023.

The museum is scheduled to open on July 8.

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“The History Museum of Mobile is excited to see the next step towards opening the Africatown Heritage House unfold and is grateful for the partnership of Mobile County Commission,” said Meg Fowler, director of the History Museum of Mobile.

“Curatorial work on ‘Clotilda: The Exhibition’ is ongoing and progressing well, as are plans for the July opening,” she added. “The History Museum continues to work closely with the descendant community and the Africatown community at every step.”

Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood said that elected officials are “thankful” for their partnership with the history museum. The museum operates the 20,000-square-foot museum on Royal Street adjacent to Mardi Gras Park as well as Colonial Fort Conde, and the Phoenix Fire Museum.

“Mobile County Commission’s collaboration with the History Museum on ‘Clotilda: The Exhibition at Africatown Heritage House’ enables us to draw upon their expertise and capacity to share the important story of the community,” Ludgood said.

The $1.3 million museum at 2465 Winbush St. is the first in Africatown to tell the community’s unique story about its origins – how it was founded and developed by the 110 survivors and descendants of the last slave ship to arrive to the U.S. during the 19th century.

The ship arrived into the U.S. through Mobile Bay in 1860 – more than 50 years after Congress enacted a law against the importation of more slaves into the country.

The museum, after it opens, will be a space utilized by community groups to host events and varied cultural offerings, which could include alternate exhibits. Last month, “The Memory Keeper” sculpture by Charles Smith and Frank Ledbetter, was unveiled outside the Heritage House.

Other facilities are also in the works within Africatown, highlighted by the Welcome Center. That approximately $6 million facility across from the Old Plateau Cemetery is set to open in 2024. The Mobile City Council authorized last month a $400,000 contract with Mott MacDonald, a local architecture firm, for the Welcome Center’s design.