The original museum was built as the Fine Arts building for the California Midwinter International Exposition. The exposition made a profit, and the building and money were donated to The City and named the Memorial Museum. The collection then, as now, was quite eclectic -- until it began to focus solely on fine arts, it was nicknamed "San Francisco's attic." The original Egyptianate building was eventually demolished in 1929 after other wings were added between 1919 and 1925. After the death of M. H. de Young, it was renamed the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum.

But the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 spelled doom for the buildings, which were badly damaged. In 1995, Dede Wilsey took up the effort to build a replacement. After three unsuccessful bond measures, she turned to private financing, raising around $190 million to fund the new building's construction. In 1998, as part of Proposition J, Warren Hellman promised $40 million in private funds to build the controversial parking garage beneath the Music Concourse -- after Museum Director Harry Parker's efforts to move the entire thing downtown failed. While the museum is finished, the parking garage is woefully behind schedule thanks to funding shortages (Hellman's fundraising fell short) and legal challenges, and traffic issues such as widening Martin Luther King Drive continue to elicit controversy.

The de Young will be open and free to the public at noon on Saturday and will stay open until 5pm on Sunday, giving you a unique late-night opportunity to see the building for yourself and browse the collection.