Local Favorite
Our Take
Even though the outside of this museum appears to be an average-looking (but large) brick building, the interior will completely surprise you, especially with the amount of immense, open space. There is a three-foot-high terra cotta frieze that surrounds the outside of the building depicting Civil War soldiers, and the inside has four massive columns that reach nearly fifteen stories tall. The brickwork and detail are just incredible. Even if you don’t know or care much about the architecture and design of late 19th-century buildings, this museum might inspire some passion. And it also has an interesting history as the location of many presidential inaugural balls.