A Community Update from CEO Marguerite Gong Hancock
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Many of you have been with us through every chapter of this story — the founding vision, the renovation of our historic building, the excitement of 500 people at our December community sneak peak Open House, and the January rains that changed our plans. You showed up then with encouragement, expertise, and a firm belief in our mission. You have stayed with us since. Thank you.
I want to share where we now stand — and what we have decided to do.
What Got Us Here
Our founding Board members, and the community supporters who joined them over twenty-five years ago, handed off a dream made tangible: a fully rehabilitated historic building. In 2025 we completed the $13 million renovation of our 1932 Roth Building, preserving what makes it extraordinary — Birge Clark’s signature Spanish revival design, clay tile roof, 1932 windows, hand-hewn beams, and Victor Arnautoff frescoes — while renewing the electrical, plumbing, mechanical, lighting systems and more. History and modernity combined. A home for a Museum worthy of the human stories behind change that we are here to tell.
On July 1, 2025, I stepped into this role and our small start-up team began sprinting toward opening in Spring 2026. Exhibitions developed. Speakers confirmed. Programs built. Funds raised. Partnerships forged. Operating systems underway. We were close.
Then the January rains came, and the water came into our basement, where our collection was stored.
Over the months that followed — February, March, April — water intrusions appeared in new locations, revealing more complexity beneath us. Interconnected causes. A long history of water challenges in the building. The drainage patterns in adjacent Heritage Park were an important part of the picture. A forensic investigation confirmed what we suspected: a durable fix would require waterproofing subterranean walls, installing dehumidification systems to protect the collection, and improving drainage in Heritage Park along two sides of the building. As stewards of the building and the collection stored in the basement, we were not going to patch this problem.
What This Community Did
You were extraordinary.
Stakeholders, partners, donors, friends, and neighbors leaned in. The words I heard, over and over: “This Museum is going to be an important addition to this community.” “This is worth doing right.” “We want to help the Museum open and be successful.”
That belief carried us through the hardest months. It still does.
Over these same months, even while working every day on the water challenges, we have welcomed you — to fresco tours and courtyard gatherings, to community talks around Palo Alto, to pop-up moments that reminded us all what this Museum will feel like. Thank you for coming, for sharing ideas, and for answering the call with your presence, your advocacy, and your financial support. Every contribution, at every level, moves us forward.
Ours is not the only museum story shaped by years of vision, setback, and community faith. The Smithsonian traveled decades from its founding to its first gallery, carried forward by wave after wave of people who refused to let the vision go. We are in that tradition — and we are grateful.
Where We Stand Now
We have done the work. Supported strongly by the Palo Alto City Council, collaborating closely with the City Manager and City staff, and partnering with contractor Vance Brown and others, we now have a full scope, a clear timeline, and contractors ready to begin submitting permit documents. We are mindful of the upcoming rainy season and continue to want to open as soon as we responsibly can.
Once underway, the construction inside and around the building and in Heritage Park will take months. For health, safety, and operational reasons, the building cannot open to the public during active construction.
So together with our Museum Board, and in full consultation with the City, we have made the decision to pivot and open in a new way.
Opening in Chapters
The Palo Alto Museum will open in chapters.
Monthly weekend pop-ups, beginning October 2026 — each one a new piece of the Museum experience, revealed.
We need you with us through every chapter. Become a member, make a gift, sign up to volunteer, share the news with someone who loves this city. Every act of support shapes what this Museum becomes — and makes each chapter possible.
April 16 is the 133rd anniversary of the day Palo Alto’s founders filed with California to make the city official. It is the right day to open a museum built by, with, and for this community — a place dedicated to the human stories behind change, and the people who made it happen here.
Each chapter between now and then will be its own event — complete in itself, and a preview of something larger. Twenty-five years of vision. A year of building. A season of challenges met with honesty, grit, expertise, and care. And now: a museum that opens the way a good story does — one chapter at a time.
The opening is not the destination. It is the beginning of what we are building: a home for this community; a partner for educators, creators, innovators, and civic leaders; and a platform for the stories that travel from Palo Alto to shape lives around the block and around the world.
This city’s reach is extraordinary — its ideas, its people, its spirit have changed more lives than we can count. This Museum is here to hold those stories, amplify them, and share them to inspire generations to come.
Our Board and team are excited to welcome you to a season of Museum opening experiences — to offer ways to fuel curiosity, to connect, to be part of creating what’s next.
We can’t wait to share each one with you. The best is yet to come. Onward!
With gratitude, determination, and optimism,
Marguerite
Marguerite Gong Hancock
President & CEO