The Condemned Vault of Washington's History
After the state museum's building is condemned, regents scramble to find a new home for $200,000 worth of regional artifacts.
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Action toward providing a building for the state museum on the University of Washington campus has been taken by the board of regents, with the appointment of a special committee, of which Alexander McEwan, of Seattle, former regent, will be head. Means of caring for the relics and exhibits have been under consideration since the present museum building was condemned last week, but no definite action will be taken until the return of Mr. McEwan, who is now in Europe. The museum collection is valued at approximately $200,000 and includes 100,000 specimens which show the mineral, lumbering and horticultural resources of Washington and Alaska.
“Means of caring for the relics and exhibits have been under consideration since the present museum building was condemned last week.”
Museums are often the first civic casualties when infrastructure budgets are squeezed. While the original museum faced condemnation in 1923, modern institutions continue to struggle with the tension between preserving legacy collections and the high costs of maintaining historic facilities.
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