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Children’s museum finds new home in the District

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The National Children’s Museum is expected to reopen in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of the NCM)

The National Children’s Museum will re-emerge next year in a specially-designed space in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, officials announced Tuesday.

The 33,000-square-foot space at Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th Street will house interactive exhibitions with a focus on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) subjects. The museum will have its own entrance from the Woodrow Wilson Plaza, a café and gift shop. Officials hope to open in March of 2019.

“Building a museum from scratch allows us to be very intentional, creating an interactive space that whole family can enjoy,” museum president and CEO Crystal Bowyer said in a statement.

The long, sad saga of the National Children’s Museum

Museum officials said in January that they had selected this site and were negotiating the details. At the time, they estimated they might open within a year.

Tuesday’s announcement is significant for an institution that has been dormant for three years. The museum was founded in 1974 as the Capital Children’s Museum and it spent most of its history in northeast Washington. In 2003 it changed its name and received a congressional designation.

The museum sold its property near Union Station, then moved to a small space in National Harbor. It closed that facility in 2014, and has been seeking a new home ever since.

The museum will be open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tickets will be $10.95 for adults and children 12 months and over. Parking is available in the building, and the Federal Triangle Metro is nearby.

This post has been updated.