Attention Northampton Borough and area residents: the Atlas Cement Museum is now open for business.

The museum officially opened May 11.

Some refer to the Atlas Cement Museum as "one of the best kept secrets" as it has generated world-wide interest.

Visitors have descended on the museum from all corners of the globe. For instance, an official Chinese delegation, a Burgenland, Austria group with its governor and bishop, Spain, England, France, Mexico, Germany, Canada and states from California to Florida have visited the museum.

Ed Pany, the museum's curator, reports the Laubach Avenue museum, an extension to the municipal building, will be open 1 to 3 p.m. the second and fourth Sunday of the month through Sept. 28. There is no fee.

Adding to the more than 3,000 artifacts and displays are several new items.

The rare displays that will be shown for the first time include several cement company signs from years past, Burgenland pictures and memorabilia, early artifacts form Keystone Cement, East Allen Township, the 2013 Cement Worker of the Month plaque and other surprises.

The focus of the museum is on the Atlas plant and its rich heritage, at one time employing as many as 5,000 individuals and supplying cement for the Empire State Building, Holland Tunnel and the Panama Canal.

There are interactive displays, a mural painted by Roger Firestone that features the community, farm fields, individuals and other notable items and a talking horse related to the Atlas plant.

Also on display is a scale model of the plant and quarry and a 1929 model of a Hercules Cement self-loading cement car, the Atlas office switchboard and Haff Hospital memorabilia.

Pany, who initially conceived of the idea in his high school years, turned the vision into a reality later on.

As curator and volunteer, Pany, has all artifacts donated, along with regular contributions from the five remaining cement plants in the region: Lafarge, Essroc, Keystone, Lehigh Heidelberg and Buzzi Unicem.