23-05-2025
After 56 years at its Southbank home, MOSH will close by summer's end. Here's what's next.
Jacksonville will go without a MOSH for a few years.
The Museum of Science & History, located near Friendship Fountain on the Southbank of the St. Johns River, will close by Sept. 1. Groundbreaking for a new MOSH, across the river near EverBank Stadium, is scheduled for 2026, and construction won't be finished until 2028.
'After decades of serving the community from our current location, MOSH is embarking on a bold new chapter to create a museum that will act as both cultural institution and social destination for Northeast Florida,' said Alistair Dove, the museum's CEO.
MOSH, which was formed in 1941 as the Jacksonville Children's Museum and moved from Riverside to the Southbank in 1969, will move to its new facility where Hogans Creek flows into the St. Johns River in 2028. In the meantime, MOSH will hold pop-up events and partner with other organizations for educational programs.
The museum will continue to operate through the summer, including its summer camp programs.
The total cost for the new facility is expected to top $100 million. The museum has raised more than $95 million for the project from private and public donors. The city committed $50 million toward the project as part of its 2025-29 capital improvement plan, with the funding spread over three years. The city has also agreed to lease the site to the museum for 40 years at a dollar a year.
About 30 people work at MOSH. Some will be retained to run education programs and help catalog and store exhibits that will be moved to the new facility.
'Transformational reimagining': MOSH unveils new designs for $85 million-plus facility for downtown Jacksonville
The museum announced MOSH Genesis in 2020, a plan to leave its longtime home on the Southbank and build a new facility on the downtown side of the river. CSX donated $10 million in 2024 to become the museum's title sponsor. The James E. and A. Dano Davis Family Charities and Jed and Jill Davis, from the family that built the Winn-Dixie grocery store chain, donated $1.5 million. Other private donations include $5 million from Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan; $2.5 million from VyStar Credit Union; $1.1 million from the Lastinger family, including $1 million from the St. Augustine-based Lastinger Family Foundation and $100,000 from Lindsey Lastinger Riggs and Ryan Riggs; $1 million from the Ponte Vedra Beach-based Neviaser Foundation; $500,000 from PNC Bank and a "significant contribution" from the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Foundation.
Dove said projections call for up to 450,000 visitors per year to the new museum once it's opened. It will be part of a renovated Northbank that will include the USS Orleck warship, a Jacksonville fire museum, parkland and Shad Khan's Shipyards West development, plus more than a billion dollars of improvements to EverBank Stadium.
MOSH 2.0 will have almost twice the space as the current facility, in a three-floor, 100,000-square-foot building. Exhibits are to use aspects of the St. Johns River as a navigation guide for visitors, beginning with a two-story water feature representing the 27-foot drop from the St. Johns' headwaters in Indian River County to where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville. Then guests will follow "pathways that mimic the river's role in connecting the region" interspersed with collections and content "islands" showcasing the area's "nature, innovation and culture," according to MOSH.
The Southbank building is owned by the city and leased to the museum. The lease permits MOSH to continue to occupy the building for a year after closing, after which the property will revert to the city for redevelopment.
This story was updated to add a video.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: MOSH, Jacksonville's science museum, will close in September 2025
