History, Craft, and Community: The 2026 Season Begins
By Alex Fraioli, Interim Executive Director
The doors of the Heurich House Museum are opening again, and we can’t wait to welcome you back. As we begin our 2026 season, I’m excited to share what’s ahead.
Our public offerings welcome history lovers, craft makers, beer nerds, and engaged neighbors interested in immigration, labor, and civic life today. This year, we invite you to use our home as an extension of your home - come for a respite, reflection, and community learning.
More than 130 years ago, the Heurich House was constructed and decorated by historic craftspeople. In 2025, our Curator identified 46 different occupations involved in that work, and that’s just the first step in our new research. This work is central to our mission: to question established narratives, examine how gaps in historic memory are created, and actively uncover silences. We’ve begun weaving these stories into our tours, bringing the labor, craft, and lives of the people who built the house into the foreground, and connecting their legacy to the modern conversations that shape DC and our world today. See for yourself:
Visit During Our Monthly Open Houses
Rooted in our legacy of craft, our Urban Manufacturing Incubator annually supports more than 150 local craftspeople, many from underrepresented communities. Supporting today’s makers is one of the most direct ways we live out our belief that museums should be of service to their modern communities. Our signature public programs featuring these artisans are coming soon.
New Makers: Apply to be Part of a Mini Markt
All Makers: Apply to Lead a Maker-Led Workshop
Join us for Our First Maker-Led Workshop
In addition to artisan makers, we celebrate today’s beer makers with a rotating list of craft beverages at our 1921 Biergarten. Our biergarten bar is located inside an exhibit featuring the story of the historic Chr. Heurich Brewing Co., giving you a chance to connect with DC beer history while sipping on today’s local craft beverages. Join your neighbors in the heart of downtown DC.
Building on the legacy of the immigrants, craftspeople, and working-class laborers who lived and worked at the Heurich home, and those who brewed Heurich beer, we are bringing their history into conversation with the present. Through new public programs, we’re connecting these 20th-century stories to the realities of immigration, labor, and civic life in DC and the country today, inviting our community to explore how the past continues to shape our current world. As we look toward America 250, we are launching a multi-month initiative that connects historic and modern immigration, local history, women’s history, labor, DC statehood, and voting rights. Through public programs and conversations, we will examine who has had access to the promises of the American Dream, who has been excluded, and how those questions continue to shape civic life in Washington today. We can’t wait to share more of our upcoming programs with you soon!
None of this work happens without the historic house itself. This year, preservation continues in visible ways. In two weeks, 154 feet of the restored original iron fence will be reinstalled, a major milestone made possible by a generous donor. Starting in April, we’ll also install a new roof on the conservatory. And behind the scenes, our team will put into place our new comprehensive Emergency Action Plan and begin accessioning our collection.
Become a Member and take a Behind-the-Scenes Tour with our Preservation Director
Your ongoing support helps us preserve stories previously lost to history, invest in local makers, and create space for meaningful civic dialogue. Thank you for being part of this community. We can’t wait to welcome you back through the doors.
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