SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity

Perched on the Sacramento River just north of Old Sacramento, a historic electrical power station, built in 1912, sat vacant and dilapidated for decades. Up until the early 2000s, a visitor was likely to encounter bats, cobwebs and dust.

But the late Dr. Evangeline Higginbotham, executive director of the city’s Discovery Museums, always thought of a multipurpose science museum as a dream within reach. Hers was the vision that spurred the City of Sacramento and the Powerhouse Science Center to transform the historic power station into a magnificent visitor destination committed to informal science education and experiences.

In 2005, the board of directors and the staff of the Powerhouse teamed up with preservation architects, construction managers, engineers and other experts to develop a comprehensive plan for the adaptive reuse of the historic power station and bring it back to life.

In a lauded public-private partnership spanning 15-plus years between the Powerhouse Science Center, the City of Sacramento, the Sacramento County Office of Education, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), and a range of corporate partners and individual donors, construction on the new science center was finally completed in 2021.

The Powerhouse Science Center was renamed and rebranded in 2020 as the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity, or simply MOSAC.