The local commercial media have been making a lot of accusations about the Missouri History Museum’s purchase of land on Delmar Boulevard six years ago. Why is no one talking about the commitment the museum was making?
It was a plan to build a $12 million community asset in a place where big money doesn’t usually go, and where decline and decay are common if not expected. The new museum location was to be a place that everyday middle-class people would be able to see as theirs.
The recession killed the project, but the allegations swirling around could be even more destructive to the Missouri History Museum, which is nationally recognized as a cultural institution that serves not just tourists and big donors, but everyone.
Frankie Muse Freeman
St. Louis