All Posts

State Rep. Russell Goodwin wants a feasibility study on the State of Wisconsin buying the Milwaukee Public Museum building, keeping its built-in exhibits open, and moving justice-related State offices into the space the building already has. Three floors of center-tower offices, the Discovery World building and more could house State agencies in the heart of the justice district. The museum closes January 3, 2027.

State Rep. Russell Goodwin is exploring whether Wisconsin could buy the Milwaukee Public Museum building, keep its built-in exhibits open, and move justice-related state offices into the rest. The $208.6 million reuse estimate used against the idea was built for demolition and apartments, not this plan. SaveMPM explains why and proposes a State Office Building swap.

MPM’s deferred-maintenance figures grew from $30 million to $154.3 million as public money was sought. SaveMPM traced each one to its source across six reports. Where a report itemizes costs, repairs needed now run $2.7 million to $11.2 million. The County approved about $19.1 million in repairs from 2002 to 2021, and about $20.5 million in later plan items went unfunded because MPM was leaving. Which line items make up the big numbers? We’re asking.

Milwaukee County’s own 2005 audit counted 6.5 million artifacts at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Today MPM cites about 4 million, and no record produced so far explains the difference. Part 2 asks why the County trusted MPM’s numbers again in 2022.

In 2002, auditors found Milwaukee County’s wage-and-pension package cost $111.7 million, more than five times the $22 million its fiscal notes suggested. They told the County how to prevent a repeat. Since 2022, the County has committed $45 million to a new museum, handed its future to a private nonprofit, and put the old site up for sale. SaveMPM.org compares the two records and asks whether the safeguards were used in time.

Two of America’s great natural history museums are going dark within months of each other. Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences closed on September 27, and its dioramas are now front-page news. Milwaukee’s closes January 3, and the County-owned collection it holds still has no public plan. This post compares the two and sets out what SaveMPM is asking Milwaukee County and MPM, Inc. to release.

In November 2021, a Milwaukee County memo (File No. 21-1086), co-signed by MPM’s CEO, said the County should explore how to incentivize MPM to proactively explore deaccession of artifacts “not deemed significant.” MPM, Inc. says none of the Collections are being sold. But deaccession comes first, and no one has produced the lists. What the memo says, what the rules require, and the questions the public is owed answers to.

The County’s deadline for developer bids passed on October 12, and a relisting may follow. Developers aren’t lining up, the County’s own numbers show demolition costing roughly twice what the cleared land is worth, and the County is on the hook for every expense once MPM, Inc.’s lease ends May 1, 2027. Meanwhile, a public buyer has already signaled interest: the State of Wisconsin. Why isn’t the County talking to the one party that asked to be heard?

The old Milwaukee Public Museum closes in a few months, and the County is seeking developers for the site. But did anyone ever seriously consider letting it live on? The 2025 GRAEF report claimed $154.3 million in maintenance, while the County’s own assessment found about $51 million. Villa Terrace and Charles Allis were kept alive for $1 leases. We ask five respectful questions before the bulldozers.

The Milwaukee State Office Building sits directly across James Lovell Drive from the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the State has been trying to leave it for almost a decade. An even trade would move the County’s housing project to the State’s site and save the museum from demolition. It would also give Marjorie Kreilick’s ten marble mosaics, which currently have no legal protection, a safe home inside it. This post lays out the numbers, the history and the case for talking bef

Downtown Milwaukee already has room for well over 2,000 new apartments on sites that need no museum torn down. More than 1,700 of those units are approved and waiting on financing. Yet Milwaukee County asked developers to demolish the Milwaukee Public Museum to add up to 550 more. This post compares the stalled projects, the County’s own vacant land, and the County’s own numbers on demolition versus reuse.

On October 12, 1976, the Milwaukee Public Museum opened Mt. Trashmore, an exhibit built to show Americans how much they throw away. On October 12, 2026, fifty years to the day, Milwaukee County stops taking developer proposals for the museum site, with demolition estimated at $12.5–13.5 million. Taxpayers built it, paid to replace it, and may pay to destroy it.

Since 1976, Milwaukee County taxpayers have invested an estimated $557 to $589 million, in today's dollars, to house and protect the Milwaukee Public Museum's collections. The collections themselves have never carried a price, and the more than 100 habitat dioramas alone would cost an estimated $80 to $120 million or more to replace. With the old building closing in January 2027, this post asks who is responsible for making sure the public's collections arrive intact.

In 2013, the Milwaukee Public Museum was facing a pension bill, not a crumbling building. MPM, Inc. asked for the building, and the County offered to pay for repairs and hand it over. Seven years later, accreditors were told the same building was "beyond repair." Read what the County's own files say about the offer, the shifting deferred-maintenance numbers, and what the accreditors actually saw.

The State was told the Milwaukee Public Museum was a poorly built, uninsulated “concrete block building” needing more than $100 million. Milwaukee County’s own records describe a concrete-framed, insulated building rated Good, and a “deferred maintenance” number that grew from $11.2 million of actual repairs to $154.3 million. We compared the claims to the records.

The Milwaukee Public Museum has been part of this city for more than 140 years, and its death is being carried out slowly, through a misdiagnosis of neglect and a disposition plan that treats shared heritage as parts for sale. This essay bears witness to what is being lost, and asks Milwaukeeans to become more than observers.

On September 1, 2026, Drexel University and the Academy of Natural Sciences announced a closure after nearly two centuries of operation. Within 48 hours, Philadelphia's mayor and governor had mobilized. Milwaukee's museum transition has been underway since 2014, with the building closing January 3, 2027, and demolition scheduled for 2028. Neither the Governor's office nor the Mayor of Milwaukee has stepped in. SaveMPM asks why—and what happens next.

Philadelphia is losing its dioramas. Not by choice — by attrition. On September 30, 2026, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University will close its doors to the public for the last time. Among the exhibits closing with it: 37 wildlife habitat dioramas, most built between the 1930s and 1960s, spanning three floors of the museum. Milwaukee is also losing its dioramas. Not by attrition — by decision. Milwaukee Public Museum holds more than 100 Milwaukee Style hab

Most visitors assume the Rosetta Stone in Crossroads of Civilization is just another reproduction. Few realize it has a quiet 70-year history at MPM, or that its origins may be more remarkable than museum staff currently understand. This investigation traces the artifact from the Library building's Egyptian Room (1956) through five exhibit homes, and explains why high-fidelity casts of the stone matter to scholarship worldwide.

When does a museum artifact become a "prop"? When a label says so—but labels aren't titles. MPM Inc. has classified its reproduction of the Rosetta Stone as "MPM, Inc.-owned," but without acquisition records, purchase documentation, or a bill of sale, that classification proves nothing. This post traces how the definition of "Personal Property" shifted from 2013 to 2025, and why Milwaukee County needs to exercise its Section 5.9 inspection rights before historically significa