The City Museum closed its doors permanently last Monday. After a run of less than two years, the museum simply did not have enough money to expand its exhibits or advertise. In spite of the museum’s failure to attract attention, its goal was a worthy one in a city that documents the history of our nation but often forgets its own. The Washington Historical Society should rethink its methods and reopen the museum.
Nearly 500 people visited the museum last Sunday afternoon, compared to fewer than 100 on a typical Sunday. For most, it was their first visit. Attendance projections originally ranged from 100,000 to 450,000 people per year, but after 15 months the museum barely attracted 37,000 visitors.
At Georgetown, where many students’ idea of an off-campus trip is Wisconsin Ave. and M street, it is a disappointing fact that most students here have never seen the City Museum- perhaps preferring the $12-a-person International Spy Museum instead.
Housed in the former Carnegie Library, the building itself is a wonderful work of architecture, with the Great Hall bringing an appropriate sense of majesty and grandeur to the museum. The museum filled a gap in this city by describing the unique history of the District, a place where people from across the country and the world come together in a national capital built up from a swamp. The City Museum illustrated this history well, with exhibits on slavery, baseball and Chinatown all under one roof.
The museum’s severe disadvantage was its $5 admission fee. In any other city, that wouldn’t be noteworthy, but in a city with the world’s greatest collection of free museums, there was no way for the museum to compete.
While the City Museum closing is saddening, we hope to see its doors open again. The Society should look for a better way to attract visitors and improve exhibits without such a comparatively high admission fee. For now, the research library at the museum, an exceptional resource on the history of Washington, D.C., remains open and deserving of attention from students, researchers, and visitors.
