There hasn’t been enough time to even take inventory of the history we lost Saturday when the Aberdeen Museum burned, but it’s not too early to begin thinking about adding a new chapter to our history.

The immediate task is to see what can be salvaged from the ashes and to make sure the Coastal Community Action Program gets the support and resources it needs to continue the critical services it provides to low income people in the form of rent and energy assistance and care for senior citizens and children.

CCAP is already on its way, relocated temporarily to the old Seafirst Building at the corner of Broadway and Market Street. Clearly, it’s premature, but that might be a good permanent home for the agency. The building has been vacant for months and a darkened building of that size, in the heart of downtown, isn’t good for the community.

The City of Aberdeen has also looked at the building as an option to alleviate overcrowding at City Hall, which is kitty corner. There may be enough space to house both CCAP and some spill over from City Hall.

A more intriguing question is what’s next for the museum.

The city needs a museum and downtown is where it should be. Three locations come to mind immediately – the Electric Building, the Morck Hotel or the Tamblyn Building, better known as the old Selmer’s Furniture store next to where the Gateway Center is planned on the eastern edge of downtown.

This community is rightfully proud of its history. It’s colorful and it played a major role in the development of the country, supplying the timber to build sailing ships that carried more wood to build cities. It’s a grand history. As for the present — not so grand. Wouldn’t it be fitting if that history were a catalyst for downtown redevelopment that makes Aberdeen a more livable city for the future? A history museum that also serves as a cultural center, with a gallery for contemporary art and photography, and a natural history element that embraces the environment. A partnership with the Quinault Indian Nation with its amazing collection of art and artifacts would be a huge addition.

This is an opportunity to think big. Think totally renovated Electric Building with all those exterior lights on. Think Morck Hotel with affordable studio space to attract artists and affordable living spaces set aside for some of them.

It would take a broad leadership coalition and help from our friends. It will take the energy and knowledge of the people who have been involved in the museum for years and an infusion of others with knowledge of funding sources for historic and cultural preservation.

It will take leadership from City Hall to be sure — the mayor, council and, as soon as a new city administrator gets his or her coat hung up, leadership from that person.

For a community this size, we’re blessed with top flight professional historians — state Chief Oral Historian John Hughes and Polson Museum Director John Larson, to name two. Their knowledge and connections to the rest of the state’s historic preservation community will be invaluable. And passionate and talented amateur local historians such as Tom Quigg and Roy Vataja will be critical resources to the Aberdeen museum’s current director, Dave Morris.

We’ll need funding help from the state.

And we’ll need to rebuild the museum’s collection. Other museums may help with that, but it will also mean people from the community coming forward with donations from their personal collections.

It’s early in the game for all these questions. The important thing is that we don’t miss out on a historic opportunity.