Medal of Honor Museum Opens Today in Texas: It Could Have Been Here!

The National Medal of Honor Museum opens to the public today in Arlington, Texas. It could have been here.

Denver was one of the two finalists for the museum intended to celebrate the valor, courage and sacrifice of the almost 4,000 Medal of Honor recipients and the 40 million Americans who have served in the United States Armed Forces. The proposed location was that decidedly non-heroic hell strip at the corner of Broadway and Colfax Avenue currently leased by the Regional Transportation District from the Cheesman Family Foundation; it holds Civic Center Station, the free MallRide hub...and a patch of gravel that could have been the gateway to a cutting-edge museum building across from Civic Center Park and the Colorado State Capitol.

Had the museum been built here, Denver could have hosted dedication festivities complete with a "360-degree storytelling marvel in the sky...with fireworks, drones, video, and a variety of musical arrangements, including live performances by the U.S. Navy Commodores Band and many more," its website promises. Instead, Denver continues to host a motley crew hanging out by that fenced-off gravel patch.

It didn't have to be that way.

In the summer of 2019, the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation announced that, after a national search, Denver and Arlington had been chosen as the finalists for the new museum. The Downtown Denver Partnership reported that it had been "closely engaged with the Foundation throughout their site selection process, convening public and private sector leaders – including Governor Jared Polis and [former] Mayor Michael B. Hancock – to showcase Denver’s robust market."

According to Joe Daniels, president and CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, “Arlington and Denver are two exceptional cities, and we have been overwhelmed by the response we have received from their state and local officials about this important undertaking. Public and private leaders from both cities have expressed a strong desire to help the museum in its mission to further unite us all around what it means to be patriotic, to inspire us to find the hero within ourselves, and to preserve the stories of our nation’s Medal of Honor recipients for future generations."

But one group of public leaders wasn't particularly interested: the RTD board. That September, the RTD Board of Directors essentially voted to not donate the 20,000 square-foot plot of leased land for what could have been the museum's gateway. When other local officials — including Denver City Councilman Chris Hinds, who represents the gravel patch — learned of this rejection, they objected and the board did an about-face. But it was too late.

On October 2, 2019, Daniels announced that Arlington was the “optimal location to build America’s next national treasure." That treasure will open today.

As for the trashed runner-up? The city has floated a plan: six pickleball courts.

“We also started to think about, what could we do to try to activate that parcel more so we don't have just an empty, vacant piece of land in the heart of downtown?” Evan Dreyer, deputy chief of staff for Mayor Mike Johnston (and for Mayor Michael Hancock before that) told Westword last fall. “We're very excited about the possibility of being able to do something on an empty piece of land at the corner of Main Street and Main Street in downtown Denver."

But in the meantime, the corner sits empty, dishonorably discharged from what could have been a real win.

Thwack.