City Museum Seeks D.C. Help for Another Try

Backers of the City Museum say they will reopen it next year with new management, new financial partners and a new plan to tell the story of the capital city. But their plan will require a yearly subsidy of at least $1 million from the District government.

The museum, which chronicled the District's history, closed in November after failing to bring in enough visitors or revenue to make it viable.

Museum officials say they will try again, this time taking more time to raise operating money and bringing in additional partners.

"We're on our way," Thornell Page, co-chairman of the Historical Society of Washington, told the D.C. Council on Tuesday. "It's a new vision, new partners and a new future."

The City Museum of Washington, D.C., is at Mount Vernon Square across from the Washington Convention Center.

Page said a new entity, the Mount Vernon Consortium, was incorporated this week by himself, Austin H. Kiplinger, a large donor, and Rich Bradley, head of the Downtown Business Improvement District. The consortium will manage the building, the former Carnegie Library, and plan for a more ambitious -- and more financially sound -- reopening, he said.

He said part of the building could house tenants such as business and downtown improvement organizations as well as the new headquarters for the D.C. visitors center, which is now in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

There may also be an effort to provide outdoor dining at the museum, as is done in New York's Bryant Park.

"The basic concept is to make it a focal point and starting point for seeing and knowing the city,'' said Kiplinger, who co-chaired the museum's initial fundraising efforts and endowed its library, which is still open to the public.

He said the museum would occupy part of the reopened building, most of which would be geared to tourists and convention-goers.

The consortium would continue the lucrative practice of renting out the historic building for private events but also would make it available for public events as a sort of town hall, Page said.

Page did not give a specific date for a reopening and said organizers will not rush things. He said that was the problem last time, when the museum was opened before it was fully ready and without an endowment or operating reserve.

Page testified before the D.C. Council on the museum's request for $500,000 to continue the planning effort. Next will be an intensive fundraising effort to try to build a financial safety net, he said. Then organizers will seek a $1 million yearly subsidy from the city.

Officials this time are hoping to avoid an admission fee, Page said.

"Admissions, in this town, is a deterrent to attendance,'' he said. "We'd like to get away from that.''

Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), chairman of the council's Finance and Revenue Committee, said he would not be opposed to a $1 million annual subsidy, but he said the request has to be accompanied by a solid plan for the future.

"A million dollars is a lot of money,'' Evans said. "You don't want to get in a situation where the $1 million a year turns into $2 million and so on and so on. What has to happen is a plan for the future.''

Although initial attendance projections ranged from 100,000 to 450,000 a year, the museum, which opened in May 2003, drew only 36,536 paying visitors in its first 15 months.

The museum founders raised $20 million, most of which was spent on the restoration of the building.

Congress appropriated $2 million to complete the work on the building and $1.7 million for programs.

The city agreed to lease the library to the museum for $1 per year for 99 years. Several of Washington's best-known philanthropic families gave millions of dollars.