Help Bring ABHM Home! Museum’s New Space Rises in Bronzeville
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On Juneteenth Day 1988, America’s Black Holocaust Museum opened its facility in Milwaukee’s historic Bronzeville district. Thousands of schoolchildren and adults from around the world learned African American history within its walls. After its building closed in 2008, ABHM reinvented itself as an online museum serving millions of global visitors each year. And now…
The Dr. James Cameron Legacy Foundation* is pleased
to announce that
• ABHM is coming home in 2018! •
to a new building on the site of its original location
at 4th and North Avenue in Milwaukee.
Please help us bring ABHM home!
A visitor reads the bills advertising slave auctions near the museum’s auction block.
Your donation – large or small – to our Building Fund will make a big difference.
(All donations are tax-deductible.)
To discuss a NAMING OPPORTUNITY gift, please contact our Fund Development Specialist.
To make smaller donations, click here:
Donations to our Building Fund will be used for:
• Design and Construction
• Exhibit Design and Installation
• Program Development
The Griot, an apartment building named for ABHM founder Dr. James Cameron, will open in 2018 on the very site of ABHM’s former facility (1988-2008). ABHM’s new museum space will grace The Griot building’s ground floor.
ABHM’s new museum space will feature:
- History Exhibits
- Interactive Displays
- Guided Tours
- Traveling Exhibits from Other Museums
- A Museum Café, Gift Shop and Gallery
- Community Events Space
About ABHM as Part of the Revitalization of Milwaukee’s Historic Bronzeville
Maures Development Group, LLC, the only female and minority-owned development business in Wisconsin, is redeveloping almost an entire block of abandoned buildings. The $17.4 million project will transform the site into a vibrant mixed-use campus as a catalyst for the reestablishment of the historically black Bronzeville neighborhood’s culture and entertainment district.
The Bronzeville community was once a thriving African American economic and cultural hub. In the 1960s, however, hundreds of homes and businesses were demolished for the proposed Park West Freeway, which was never built. Subsequently, the once-thriving commercial corridor deteriorated, as property values plummeted and buildings fell into disrepair.
The historic former Garfield school building will be redeveloped for 30 units of high-quality, mixed-income housing.
In Phase I, the school building will be reborn as the Historic Garfield Redevelopment Project, comprised of 30 units of high-quality, mixed-income housing. In Phase II, the adjoining vacant properties will be demolished and developed as the The Griot, a newly constructed building with 41 residential units and 8,000 square feet of commercial space.
The commercial space will house America’s Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM), one of Milwaukee’s most revered cultural institutions, which shares the African American story as part of U.S. history and supports racial repair and reconciliation. The museum will re-open its doors in Spring 2018, and is projected to bring over 10,000 visitors annually into the Bronzeville neighborhood.
“The Garfield project and the re-emergence of the America’s Black Holocaust Museum are certain to be catalytic for the Bronzeville Cultural, Arts and Entertainment District,” stated Alderwoman Milele Coggs. The City of Milwaukee first identified the Garfield Project in its 2005 Bronzeville Cultural & Entertainment District Plan.
Alderwoman Milele Coggs (L) and Maures Development Group’s Melissa Goins proudly announced the historic redevelopment project in May 2016.
Located just a mile from major downtown investments, including the new Bucks Arena, the Historic Garfield redevelopment will help connect downtown’s growth to the Bronzeville neighborhood. The project is forecasted to create over 115 jobs through construction, property management and the museum. In addition, 40 city residents will receive on-the-job training through an innovative partnership with Employ Milwaukee and the Northcott Neighborhood House.
Maures Development Group, LLC, is a commercial real estate firm that has developed a reputation for innovative projects focused on historically neglected neighborhoods. From the onset, the company’s holistic strategies of combining new construction, sustainable features and social partnerships with neighborhood organizations have delivered Maures a multitude of praises for community impact.
*America’s Black Holocaust Museum’s new facility will be operated by the nonprofit Dr. James Cameron Legacy Foundation.
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Born & raised in Milwaukee all my life such a pleasure to see that the ABHM is now open again this is a good thing for Milwaukee I met Dr. James Cameron & he was a very intelligent & informative gentleman, I will always remember him.
I was so sad when ABHM closed in 2008, and I am overjoyed to learn it is reopening. Thank you for your service to keeping the tragic history alive in the spirit of remembering our past in order to change our future. I am grateful to think about taking my children to see such an important, and often forgotten, part of American history.