This encyclopedic museum is housed in a five-story, 560,000-sq-ft beaux-arts building designed by McKim, Mead & White. Today, the building houses more than 1.5 million objects, including ancient artifacts, 19th-century period rooms, and sculptures and painting from across several centuries. The museum offers a great alternative to the packed-to-the-gills institutions in Manhattan, and it often features thought-provoking temporary exhibitions. The first Saturday of the month (except September) features special events (live music, performance art) when the museum stays open until 11pm.
Construction on the building began in the early 1890s (when Brooklyn was still independent) and the intention had been to make it the largest single-site museum in the world. But the plan lost steam in 1898, when Brooklyn was incorporated into New York.
