Museum of Science and History (MOSH) in Jacksonville, Florida

No MOSH building is open to the public in October 2026; the museum serves Northeast Florida schools through outreach programs while it builds a new home.

The museum's outreach page says that during this transition period MOSH will continue to serve schools in Northeast Florida through a revitalized outreach program, before opening the doors to the new museum in downtown Jacksonville. The offerings include a mobile planetarium whose dome seats 25 to 35 students, hands-on workshops, large audience presentations and a Science Cafe setup for STEM nights and festivals.

Fees are from the MOSH outreach page, which sets a maximum range of 75 miles. The MOSH home page lists the museum's phone as (904) 396-6674 and a new mailing address at 14286 Beach Blvd, Ste 19331, Jacksonville, FL 32250; its newsroom page also gives a business address at 76 S. Laura St, Ste 1470, in Downtown Jacksonville.

The Southbank museum at 1025 Museum Circle is held under a lease and sublease that ends after the new Northbank museum is finished, when the buildings pass to the City of Jacksonville.

The term sheet in DIA Resolution 2022-01-03 says that one hundred and eighty days after substantial completion of the new museum, the lease and sublease for the existing MOSH museum at 1025 Museum Circle will be deemed terminated. MOSH keeps exclusive possession until then to pack and remove its non-fixed property, then vacates and surrenders the premises to the city. At the same time the Duval County School District relinquishes all of its interests in the premises, and title to the structures and fixtures passes to the city the day after MOSH leaves. The same terms carry into the 2024 amended agreement in DIA Resolution 2024-08-01.

Those terms were written for a museum that would stay open on the Southbank until its replacement opened, an approach MOSH has since changed. Its outreach page refers to decades of serving the community from the Southbank location in the past tense and describes outreach as the museum's work during the transition, so the building is no longer a place to visit while the lease runs.

MOSH asked to build a new museum on city land at the Shipyards on the Northbank, and the Downtown Investment Authority opened negotiations with it in 2021.

DIA Resolution 2021-07-03 records that MOSH had expressed the desire to construct a new museum facility on Shipyards East, a city-owned parcel of approximately 21.7 acres, and directed the DIA chief executive to negotiate the disposition of a civic attraction site there. The board found that a civic attraction is a desirable use in that location and consistent with its vision for the waterfront between Catherine Street and Metropolitan Park, including extensive new park space that would benefit from the activity a museum brings. The resolution also notes that the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund had shared a master plan of that waterfront envisioning a civic attraction on Shipyards East.

Those negotiations produced the 2022 term sheet and the 2023 lease described below. By October 2026 the Southbank museum no longer receives visitors, and MOSH serves schools through outreach until the new building opens.

The City of Jacksonville leases MOSH about 2.5 acres of city-owned Shipyards land for 40 years at nominal rent, and in 2024 the deal was reshaped so the city will own the museum building.

City Council enacted Ordinance 2023-0184-E on April 11, 2023. It authorized a redevelopment agreement among the city, the Downtown Investment Authority and MOSH, a ground lease of about 2.5 acres within the Shipyards site with an initial 40-year term and nominal rent, and agreements for a new museum of at least 75,000 square feet, a city-built 1.5-acre joint-use park, and another 3.28 acres of public park space and Riverwalk improvements on the Northbank. The earlier DIA Resolution 2022-01-03 set the annual ground lease rent at $1.00 a year and described the property as a 6.86-acre parcel commonly referred to as Lot X.

DIA Resolution 2024-08-01 records that MOSH had met its fundraising milestone and that the Mayor had proposed a capital project of $50 million in city funds toward a city-owned museum building. Its term sheet calls for a 75,000 to 130,000 square foot museum owned by the city and built by MOSH with a minimum capital investment of $85,000,000, a construction term of no more than three years, then a 40-year occupancy term with one 10-year renewal option. MOSH accepts responsibility for cost overruns beyond the approved city project. The 2024 term sheet measures Lot X at 7.23 acres, against 6.86 acres in 2022; the two DIA documents differ and neither explains the change.

MOSH's latest design release describes a five-story building of a projected 125,000 square feet with 10 exhibits covering 50,000 square feet, a cafe and community space.

The September 1, 2026 MOSH release marked completion of the 60 percent design schematics, named SmithGroup as the design firm, and said the renderings had gone to the Downtown Investment Authority for review. A March 23, 2026 release introduced three of the ten galleries, The Nexus, Superhuman and Nature and Culture, developed with Ralph Appelbaum Associates. Nature and Culture is meant to tell the story of Jacksonville, from the Big Bang to Big Data.

The museum's own figures do not all match. The MOSH home page still shows 110K square feet alongside a 7.2-acre indoor and outdoor space combining museum, park and waterfront, while the September 2026 release gives 125,000 square feet; the release is newer. The home page also projects 500,000 visitors a year and, as MOSH's own estimates, $226 million in economic activity and 1,900 jobs from construction and $33 million a year in impact in Duval County.

No opening date is set; MOSH expects to break ground in early 2027, after a city performance schedule that called for construction by March 2026 slipped.

DIA Resolution 2025-01-03 set a revised schedule: 100 percent construction drawings by November 15, 2025, commencement of construction no later than March 1, 2026, and substantial completion of all improvements by July 31, 2028. Later that year, Resolution 2025-10-09 recorded that MOSH had been delayed in the design of the museum building and commencement of construction, and recommended further amendments, including cutting required off-street parking from 75 to a minimum of 30 spaces.

The museum's September 2026 release says 100 percent construction documents will be completed later this year once the DIA approves the renderings, with groundbreaking expected in early 2027. MOSH reported in March 2026 that its capital campaign had raised nearly $100 million, and its newsroom lists an October 8, 2026 gift of $1 million from The Players Championship. The same newsroom records that VyStar Credit Union loaned executive Lysa M. Barbano to MOSH in April 2026 to serve as executive director during the move to the Northbank.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the MOSH home, outreach and newsroom pages and its 2026 releases, Ordinance 2023-0184-E on the City Council's Legistar, and DIA Resolutions 2021-07-03, 2022-01-03, 2024-08-01, 2025-01-03 and 2025-10-09.