The completion of the Museum & Gallery at Heritage Green is the culmination of several years of planning and development. In 1998, Alester G. Furman purchased the Coca-Cola bottling plant at 516 Buncombe Street. His intention was to transform the bottling facility into a history museum, while maintaining the original structure and facade. As the idea was slow to come to fruition, the building was purchased from Furman by local developer Phil Hughes. After several unsuccessful attempts to repurpose the building, Hughes nearly tore it down, but an urgent petition from members of the nearby Hampton-Pinckney neighborhood caused him to reconsider.
While talking with Dr. Bob Jones III before the opening of the 2001 Living Gallery, Hughes and Dr. Jones began to discuss the possibility of a satellite location for the Museum & Gallery's collection of fine art. In 2002, with the help of Paul Wickensimer and Phil Hughes, the deed for the plant was transferred to a non-profit holding company for the sole use of the Museum & Gallery. Since that time, the M&G proprietors have been developing and implementing plans to turn the plant into the 
space you see today. However, the road to this point does not simply involve a historic building and the goodwill of a few generous citizens. It is also the story of a collection of art renowned throughout the world--the collection of Museum & Gallery at Bob Jones University.
The collection's storied history begins over fifty years ago when Dr. Bob Jones Jr. began collecting the pieces that would build the foundation of the permanent Museum & Gallery display. He began collecting works from the Baroque Period because of its relative lack of popularity at the time. For astonishingly low prices, he was able to acquire works by such names as Botticelli, Botticini, Ghirlandaio, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Ribera. Then, on Thanksgiving Day of 1951, the collection opened with some 40 paintings in two small rooms in the Fine Arts building on the campus of the university.
By 1962 the primary collection had grown to nearly 300 works. These included not just works by Italian and French artists, but Dutch, Flemish, Spanish and German as well, including the notable series by renowned American artist Benjamin West.
As the Museum & Gallery collection continued to grow, it captured the public's attention under the research of Dr. Stephen Pepper, whose scholarly writings served to update both the American and the European audiences on the collection's quality and importance. Today, the collection is made up of 425 paintings and over 1000 pieces of antiquity spanning 37 centuries and many different cultures. From Russian icons to ancient Egyptian artifacts to priceless Renaissance and Baroque paintings, the works in the Museum & Gallery reflect the vision of the founder. Most of the present content was purchased; relatively few works were acquired by gifts or donations from other collectors or foundations, a remarkable feat considering the value of the collection as a whole. The collection's latest catalog, printed in 2001, reaffirms its standing in the arts community and focuses on 100 of M&G's most well-known masterpieces.
With the new Museum & Gallery at Heritage Green featuring rotating exhibitions from the primary body of work, these works will now be even more accessible to the public. As such, the Heritage Green site is the product of years of planning and many long hours of dedicated service. Taking its place among the other cultural bodies on the Green, M&G's collection will shine brightly as a beacon of learning and artistic education.