DC’s National Building Museum with Kids

Washington DC’s National Building Museum is a unique museum. Just by reading the name, you would assume that this museum is dedicated to “buildings” throughout the United States. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Usually, I write about places I wholeheartedly recommend. I’m breaking that rule with this post. I suggest doing your research before visiting. The National Building Museum is constantly changing its exhibits so one season may interest you more than another. If you were looking to visit around the time we went, I would say skip it.

Our family visited the museum on a Saturday in March. We arrived to find the entire Great Hall cordoned off for an evening reception. It made it impossible to take in the magnitude and splendor of the Hall.

Admission & Hours

Admission to the exhibits is $10 for adults and $7 for youth (3-17), students, and seniors. Both the museum and museum shop are open Monday-Saturday from 10am-5pm and Sunday from 11am-4pm. The museum is closed some days for special events.

Exhibits

During our visit, we were able to explore 2 floors of galleries. Each floor had 3 or 4 exhibits. There is a kid-friendly room on each floor. The Building Zone is for ages 2-6 and introduces children to the building arts through play. (This was closed during our visit.). On the second floor, Play Work Build is for children and adults. They are encouraged to “play” with blocks of all sizes.

Other exhibits included Secret Cities, Evicted, Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theaters, Hoops, and House & Home. As you can tell only a few of those touch on “buildings”. In my opinion, a National Building Museum should focus on significant buildings throughout the nation. That was sorely lacking here. Only House & Home touched on residential architecture; past and present.

Tours

The museum offers free Historic Building Tours a few times a day. Each tour is 45 minutes long and visits the private fourth floor. We took the tour and it ran on for over 2 hours. Our docent rambled and rambled. We were tempted to leave the tour at times, but discovering the history of the building was interesting at times. Our kids found the tour extremely boring.

Final thoughts

Visiting the National Building Museum really has to do with your interests and what exhibits are currently on display. I’ve heard from friends that the museum frequently has awesome weekend activities for kids. Unfortunately, we missed one of those weekends. So do your research beforehand. If you are in Washington DC for a short visit, I recommend skipping this museum. There are far better and cheaper museums in the area.

Check out these posts for more places to visit in Washington DC with kids.

• 4 Days with Kids in Washington DC
• National Postal Museum & Union Station with Kids
• Museum of the Bible with Kids
• National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial with Kids
• United States Air Force Memorial with Kids

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are strictly my own. I was not compensated for this post.