The Goedang Ransoem Museum is a former public kitchen built in 1918, during the Dutch colonial period. The public kitchen is equipped with two large warehouses and a steam generator to cook 3900 kg of rice every day for coal mine workers (chain people), hospital patients and mine workers’ families.
In the Japanese period until the Dutch II aggression, large-scale cooking activities were still ongoing. Since the 1950s after the war, cooking activities in this public kitchen have begun to decline. In the mid-1970s and 1980s the public kitchen building was used as an education and housing for Ombilin Coal Mine employees. Until early 2005 this building was still used as a place of residence by the local community.
In 2004-2005 the complex of historic buildings began to be conserved and arranged by the Mayor of Sawahlunto to be used as a museum. The inauguration of the museum was carried out by Vice President Jusuf Kalla on December 17, 2005. The Goedang Ransoem Museum is managed by the Historic Heritage Technical Unit (UPT) under the guidance of the Tourism and Culture Office of Sawahlunto City, West Sumatra, with collections of various cooking utensils, such as combustion stoves, kettle (kettle), field, cormorant, shovel, hole saws, songket, photos, and ceramics.
