Lincoln Memorial Undercroft Museum Scheduled to Open in June 2026

A new museum will open directly beneath the Lincoln Memorial in June 2026, giving the public its first access to the memorial’s 50,000-square-foot Undercroft. The Undercroft space is almost twice the size of the memorial above it. Builders installed 120 massive concrete pillars that sink 50 feet into the ground to bedrock when construction began in the early 1910s.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said the Undercroft has never been seen by the public before. He noted stalactites still dripping from the ceiling, formed when rainwater seeps through cracks in the granite and picks up calcium. The total cost of the project is $69 million.

Philanthropist David Rubenstein donated a quarter of that amount. Rubenstein said he thought it would be a good idea to have more of an educational role for the Lincoln Memorial. “You can’t really be a great country if you don’t really honor your history and understand your history,” he said.

Rubenstein also described Abraham Lincoln’s personal life. “He had a very complicated life,” he said. “He had a lot of tragedy in his life. A lot of his children died before they were very old. [He] had a very complicated marriage as well.

Howard University professor emerita Edna Greene Medford said the memorial remains a symbol of freedom and inclusion. She noted that contralto Marian Anderson performed there in 1939 after being barred from indoor venues by Whites-only policies. Martin Luther King Jr.

Spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time,” he said. Medford said the memorial becomes a symbol of freedom for various groups who feel that this is their memorial and interpret freedom in their own way.

Secretary Burgum said there is a place to have current cultural debates and a place to just tell and celebrate history. “We’re not a nation without flaws, but we are a nation that was based on continuous improvement,” he said.