Crime Museum Asked to Leave by Landlord

The National Museum of Crime & Punishment (aka the Crime Museum) is a private museum located in Penn Quarter. After being open for seven+ years, it will close on September 30, 2015. In various news reports, museum staff indicated that the landlord of the space has asked them to leave. The museum is seeking a new space in the DC area. Just reading between the lines here; it appears as if they weren't attracting enough customers or generally weren't creating enough sales to the liking of the landlord; i.e. they can charge more to potential tenants with higher revenues and profits.

The Crime Museum was always an awkward fit in Penn Quarter. It is located across the street from from the established Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museums, as well as only two blocks away from the very popular International Spy Museum. The block the Crime Museum is on is very eclectic with neighbors such as an international law firm, a high volume Mexican restaurant, a swanky hotel, a steakhouse, a popular basement bar, a cupcakery, and a coffee shop. So, there was a lot of competition for just getting noticed, let alone getting folks to come inside and spend money. Even with bright yellow signage for its "Cop Shop" store, one could easily miss the museum save for the police themed music often pumped through speakers at the door or the stanchions made of handcuffs funneling you inside.

A few years ago, the museum made some seemingly obvious and avoidable missteps in marketing and promotion. In 2011, they created a Valentine's Day promotion featuring domestic violence crimes, but wordsmithed the promotions into a rather morbid activity for couples to experience while bound together in the museum. 

And in a 2011 two-fer, the museum was called out for sending staff, many young black men, out into the streets of DC to pass out promo materials while dressed in orange, mock-prison inmate jumpsuits. 

In 2013, another set-back: the show America's Most Wanted was cancelled. It had been filmed on set inside the Crime Museum. The show's host, John Walsh, was a partner in the museum's creation and opening.

No word yet on where the museum may end up, or what will replace it in the 25,000+ square feet space at 575 7th St NW. I'll post more news as it comes.

More Punishment Than Crime, New Museum is Expansive

Friends and I made a recent trip to the new museum on the DC block, the National Museum of Crime & Punishment. It's in Penn Quarter, 575 7th Street NW, about three blocks from the southern end if the 42 bus route. It was quite an experience. Quite a long and somewhat taxing experience.

We weren't sure if we left with a positive disposition on current law enforcement, a depressing outlook on the darkness of human nature, or a sick feeling about the brutality perpetrated by both law breakers and law makers. In the first gallery, A Notorious History of American Crime, the Museum employs a sensory-stimulating and somewhat assaulting style of in your face presentation regarding the history of crime and punishment. Some of the early history telling didn't focus on why punishments were enacted, but just on the often gruesome punishments themselves. That's fine, it's history, and the story needs to be told. But the shock value factor trumped everything else.

The Museum is better a entertaining than informing, which seems to be one of the goals. They compensate for that by occasionally listing dense, sometimes useless and inexplicably small text captions for objects. Often, it was difficult to tell which artifacts in the collection were authentic to a period, which were actually involved in a crime event or which were just replicas. Even some of the highlighted items were replicas, such as a car that was used in a movie about Bonnie and Clyde. To me, that's not really exciting to look at. Give me the real car they rode around in and that's sort of exciting, but the car Warren Beatty drove in, eh.

However, the Museum was not all bad. There is a lot to see for the $17.95 adult admission. There are five galleries and each is fairly extensive. The fifth is literally a television studio, devoted to America's Most Wanted, which is now filmed on site. The museum is labyrinth like, seemingly going on and on, and on, defying the limits placed on it by outward appearances. Remember to not make our mistake by pacing yourself. We tried to read each and every panel, and tried most of the interactives. That left is wanting to rush exhibits at the end of the Museum since we were slightly fatigued. Sadly, I think we missed some cool stuff on prisons near the end.

One exhibit that is hard to miss however, is the simulated DEAD BODY in the CSI Gallery. I was a little taken aback. There were simulated gunshot, stab and other wounds on the body, which was supposed to a part of an autopsy interactive. Yeah, I'll leave that for the pre-med students. If there is an activity I'd least like to simulate, it's trolling around in a morgue looking at dead bodies. This museum is not for the young! Not the young I know anyway. I'd give it a strong PG-13 rating, bordering on an R rating.

The National Museum of Crime & Punishment is not for everyone, but I see the appeal to information hungry 8th graders and curious, entertainment seeking visitors to DC alike. There aren't any clear local connections or shout outs, it is after all a national museum, but locals could have a little fun with this place if they head in with the right expectations.