Deadwood businessman and former mayor W.E. Adams built Deadwood’s Adams Museum in 1930 to preserve the history of the Black Hills pioneers and to memorialize his deceased first wife and two daughters.

The Museum was a gift to the City of Deadwood and the building and grounds remain City property. The Museum, as is the Historic Adams House, is operated by Adams Museum & House, Inc., a non-profit educational organization.

Deadwood’s Adams Museum is the Black Hills’ oldest history museum. Artifacts on display from Deadwood’s infamous past reflect the powerful legends of Wild Bill, Calamity Jane, and Deadwood Dick. From a one-of-a-kind plesiosaur, the Thoen Stone, and W.E. Adams’ love letters, to a lively folk art collection, Lakota bead and quill work, and Potato Creek Johnny’s gold nugget, the Adams Museum exhibits capture the mysteries, the tragedies, the bawdiness, and the dreams found in the history, art, and natural history of the Black Hills.

The Adams Museum is open year 'round and features changing exhibits and special programs. The main floor and lower level are wheelchair-accessible.

The Historic Adams House was built in 1892 by Deadwood pioneers Harris and Anna Franklin. Local contemporary press described the home as "the grandest house west of the Mississippi."

The elegant Queen Anne-Style house heralded a wealthy and socially prominent new age for Deadwood, a former rough and tumble gold mining town. Harris and Anna Franklin’s son Nathan bought the house for a token $1 in 1905. In 1920, Nathan Franklin sold the house to W.E. and Alice Adams for $8,500. Adams' second wife Mary closed up the house following the death of W.E. in 1934, leaving the contents and furnishings intact.

By 1987, an infirm Mary Adams Balmat sold the mansion to a couple who renovated the house and operated it as a bed and breakfast inn until 1992 when they sold the home to the City of Deadwood’s Historic Preservation Commission. In 1998 the City of Deadwood, the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission, and the Adams Museum began restoration of the Adams House as a museum and later entered into a co-stewardship agreement with the Adams Museum Board of Directors.

Deadwood’s Adams Museum & House Board of Directors and Staff are charged with the preservation, interpretation and operation of the house as an historic museum. The City of Deadwood owns and maintains responsibility for the care and maintenance of the buildings and grounds, and provides general operating support. The restoration project cost $1.5 million, with half of the amount provided by the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission and the other half provided as matching funds by the Adams-Mastrovich Family Foundation, founded by Mary Adams Balmat.

The house opened to the public as a museum on July 1, 2000. The Historic Adams House property includes the Mary Adams Orientation Center featuring wheelchair-accessible bathrooms, orientation exhibition, and the Adams' Treasures Gift Shop, with a complete inventory of Victorian Era-styled jewelry, accessories, and more. The Adams House itself is wheelchair-accessible on the first floor.

The Adams Museum & House, Inc. is a private non-profit organization that qualifies as a federally tax exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Service Code Section 501(C) (3). This has several key implications: The AM&H does not pay federal taxes and donations of cash, services, and goods may be tax deductible to the person or organization making the donation.