Founded in 1904, the Museum was housed in older buildings during the first several decades of its long history. The original location was an old mansion in Sunset Park, which was condemned and razed in 1910. For several years, the museum’s treasures were homeless, but in 1926, the Society of Fine Arts and History was organized to promote the arts in Evansville. The group provided a new venue for the Museum in the original YWCA building at 216 NW Second Street (seen here), which opened in 1928 as the Temple of Fine Arts and Museum. Steady growth eventually led to plans for another facility, and the Museum would return to its point of origin in Sunset Park, reopening in a modern, new building on the city’s riverfront in the late 1950s.
