Iowa official: State Historical Museum needs costly repairs

Iowa official: State Historical Museum needs costly repairs

DES MOINES (AP) — The head of the department that oversees Iowa’s flagship history museum said Wednesday that the building is in serious need of repairs, with a leaky ceiling and a crumbling exterior, and will require financial help from the Legislature in the years ahead.

Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs Director Mary Cownie told a group of lawmakers on the Fiscal Committee that it’s “an absolute embarrassment” that the State Historical Museum in downtown Des Moines has water leaks that require the facility’s atrium to be littered with buckets.

“I would hope that at the Capitol, if we had buckets, we would be sure to try to address the issue — given we’re a public institution just like the Capitol,” she said. Cownie added that the building, which has housed the museum since the late 1980s, also has maintenance issues with its heating and cooling system and drainage system. She noted the building’s granite exterior is crumbling, with pieces occasionally falling as people walk by.

The department wants to renovate the building and estimates it will cost $65 million over several years.