Barnum Museum awarded National Historic Landmark status

Bridgeport”™s Barnum Museum is hosting a ceremony on Aug. 24 to celebrate its new status as a National Historic Landmark.

The landmark status was designated by the U.S. National Park Service. Although the site has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972, National Historic Landmark status is less commonplace ”“ the museum is the first site in Bridgeport and the 64th in Connecticut to gain that status, which has only been designated to about 2,600 sites across the nation.

The Barnum Museum opened in February 1893 as a resource library and lecture hall. The City of Bridgeport acquired it in 1933 and reopened it as the Barnum Museum in 1936. The museum first applied for landmark status in 2009. The site is currently closed to the public, pending a renovation of its exterior.