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apollonaut. Built by People Who've Been

Journal / History

History, art & architecture

A couple’s collection.
A museum on the bay.

The story of The Dalí Museum, from a collection begun in 1943 to a building on the St. Petersburg waterfront.

The Dalí Museum’s concrete walls and free-form glass bubble above palm trees, rocks and flowering gardens under a blue sky
The Dalí Museum’s concrete walls and free-form glass bubble above palm trees, rocks and flowering gardens under a blue sky.

Reynolds and Eleanor Morse

Shortly before they married in 1942, Reynolds and Eleanor Morse visited a Dalí retrospective at the Cleveland Museum of Art. They bought their first painting a year later, beginning a forty-year friendship with the artist, and showed their growing collection in their Cleveland home.

A plain concrete wall of The Dalí Museum with Dalí’s signature high on the façade above the entrance
The concrete side wall of The Dalí Museum with tall cypress trees in front

To St. Petersburg

In March 1971 the Morses opened a museum beside their office in Beachwood, Ohio, with Dalí at the opening. When they looked for a larger home, St. Petersburg rallied to bring the collection to Florida, and a converted marine warehouse in the city opened as the museum on 7 March 1982.

A building for the bay

The present building, designed by Yann Weymouth of HOK, opened on the downtown waterfront on 11 January 2011. Its concrete walls, 18 inches thick, protect the collection from hurricanes, while a free-form glass structure known as the Enigma, 75 feet tall, wraps around a spiral staircase.

The triangular glass panes of the Enigma bulging from the side of the concrete museum building

Continue exploring

The spiral staircase curving up inside the glass Enigma at The Dalí MuseumThe collectionWhat the Morses gathered.The triangular glass panes of the Enigma bulging from the side of the concrete museum buildingWhat to see at the museumGalleries, glass and the Dome.Plan your visit

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