Governor Chris Gregoire and a handful of other elected officials visited the Nordic Heritage Museum Oct. 8 for a guided tour and hear the museum's plans to move to a new location on Market Street.

Many of the elected officials took the opportunity to praise the Nordic Heritage Museum, the only pan-Nordic museum in North America.

Reuven Carlyle, 36th District Representative, was instrumental in the governor's visit to the museum.

He said he has a particular passion for the Nordic Heritage Museum's relocation project as a Jewish-American because the five nations represented by the museum gave shelter to Jews during the Holocaust.

"This is about the community engaging in the possibilities of what the Nordic Heritage Museum can be in the 21st Century," Carlyle said of the project.

Washington Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles said she is glad the state government could give $1.5 million for the relocation project of the "unique museum that everyone so treasures."

"This building has been incredible but we are looking forward to a much superior building on Market Street," she said.

Gregoire said the Nordic-American culture represented by the Nordic Heritage Museum is unique and needs to be protected and shared.

The new location will allow Ballard to be recognized internationally as the center of that culture, she said.

Gregoire said she wants the state government to be able to offer further monetary support for the project if needed once the economic climate improves.

"We want you to succeed," she said. "We want to be supportive. We want to make sure this vision and dream become a reality."

Also present at the event were King County Council Member Larry Phillips and 36th District Representative Mary Lou Dickerson.

The Nordic Heritage Museum, currently located at 3014 N.W. 67th Street, has acquired 75,000 square feet of land on the south side of Market Street just west of 24th Avenue N.W.

The museum plans to make the move by 2014.