Late-night fire damages LA’s Museum of Jurassic Technology.

The quirky and independently operated Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City has suffered a major setback after a fire damaged the site earlier this month. The Museum of Jurassic Technology (MJT), which closed the day of the incident, announced that it would remain shuttered for an extended period of time after fire crews extinguished the flames. Late on July 8, the fire was first reported on the building’s first floor, and while firefighters were able to contain most of the flames to the museum’s gift shop, the smoke damaged other parts of the building.

In a statement released July 13, the MJT estimated the total revenue loss at $75,000. The museum added that a grand reopening could be expected “sometime next month.”

A Quirky LA Institution

The MJT has always been an acquired taste. Founded in 1988 by David Hildebrand Wilson and Diana Drake Wilson, the museum is unlike any other in Los Angeles. Describing itself as being “dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of the Lower Jurassic,” the site features almost no exhibits directly related to the early Jurassic period. However, the spirit of Renaissance-era wunderkammers—also known as cabinets of curiosity—is alive and well at the MJT, an early forerunner to museums and scientific centers.

Wilson realized the fire extinguishers he had on hand at his house weren’t sufficient, but his daughter and son-in-law soon showed up with a larger fire extinguisher, and they were able to suppress the flames just before firefighters arrived on the scene.

Yet other exhibits are more fanciful and unusual. One room, for instance, features decomposing dice from the collection of legendary magician Ricky Jay. Another exhibit, entitled “The Garden of Eden on Wheels,” offers a photographic study of Los Angeles-area trailer parks.

There are also stereographic radiographs of flowers, microscopic mosaics made out of butterfly wing scales, and a collection of strange letters sent by amateur astronomers to the Mount Wilson Observatory between 1915 and 1935. Since 2005, the museum has also operated a Russian tea room based on the study of Tsar Nicholas II in the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg.

The Fire and Its Aftermath

In an essay published by writer Lawrence Weschler—whose 1996 work, Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, is a book-length investigation of the origins of some of MJT’s artifacts—the fire was first noticed by David Wilson, the museum’s founder and self-appointed director. Wilson lives in a home behind the museum, and was quick to action once he saw smoke coming from the building. He immediately grabbed two fire extinguishers and ran over to the museum, describing the fire in an interview as a “ferocious column of flame” jumping up the corner wall that faces the street.

In hindsight, Wilson realized the fire extinguishers he had on hand at his house weren’t sufficient, but his daughter and son-in-law soon showed up with a larger fire extinguisher, and they were able to suppress the flames just before firefighters arrived on the scene. Fire personnel later told Wilson that, had they arrived just a minute later, the fire would have engulfed the entire building.

The smoke from the fire, on the other hand, had time to permeate and spread throughout the museum. Wilson compared the smoke damage to “having a thin creamy brown liquid… evenly poured over all the surfaces—the walls, the vitrines, the ceiling, the carpets, and eyepieces, everything.” Smoke damage like that can take time to clean and repair, especially at a museum with the MJT’s emphasis on its curation and aesthetic. Staff and volunteers have been working tirelessly to clean and restore the interior of the museum since the fire, but the process will take time.