The Wisconsin Veterans Museum is moving forward with plans to rebuild and expand at Capitol Square in Madison.

Last week, the State Building Commission approved $9 million to the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs to purchase the building at 30 West Mifflin St., which is currently leased by the museum.

Museum director Chris Kolakowski said the museum has outgrown the space it has occupied since 1993.

Detailed plans for the new facility are not yet public, but Kolakowski said “the rest of the project will flow” from the initial $9 million state-funded purchase of the property. Organizers hope to have the existing building, originally built as a department store in 1948, demolished within two years to make room for the new museum.

The entire project is expected to cost between $120 million and $130 million. Kolakowski said the museum plans to request $100 million from Wisconsin’s next two-year budget and is confident the museum’s endowment will also raise between $40 million and $50 million.

Dan Checki, president of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Foundation, said the $9 million also represents an important symbol of private donors.

“This opening has enabled us to approach other potential donors with a concrete plan in hand that shows that the state is behind the construction of the new museum,” said Checki.

Those donors already include Madison philanthropist W. Jerome Frautschi, who pledged $10 million to the project last May. Checki says the foundation will focus first on raising large philanthropic donations and then move on to raising smaller amounts from individuals who want to support the project.

A warehouse full of memories

The museum collects memorabilia and artifacts donated by Wisconsin veterans and their families, including everything from Civil War flags from Wisconsin regiments to a dress an Eau Claire woman made from the nylon parachute that saved her husband’s life.

Due to space constraints, only 3 percent of the extensive collection is currently on display. Because of these limitations, only about 13 percent of the exhibition space is devoted to Wisconsin’s post-World War II military history.

“All of these incredible stories from Wisconsin veterans over the last 80 years – we just didn’t really have the space to do them justice. And that’s what we’re going to do with the new facility,” Kolakowski said.

He said the new building is a “once-in-a-lifetime” project that will house the museum “not just for now and the next 10 years, but for now and the next 30 to 50 years.” He added that while some elements of the new museum will be familiar to longtime visitors, it is a chance to “reimagine” the way the stories of Wisconsin’s veterans are told.

“We have a long tradition of caring for the stories of Wisconsin’s veterans, telling them with respect and preserving them for future generations,” said Kolakowski, himself a descendant of Wisconsin veterans dating back to the Civil War. “There are many people in the state who have entrusted us with their family memories. And that is a responsibility we take seriously.”

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new museum building is planned for 2027.