“It might be a bats--t crazy idea,” Keith Krom, a Watergate resident, would tell people, even though it was his idea. Many advised him to drop it. After all, the museum he envisioned had no location.

He is listed as co-owner. A website dedicated to the McCord Family Association includes a 16-chapter history of the McCords dating to 1720, written by James McCord and published online in 1997. An ...