The original fireproof museum building, designed by noted Milwaukee architect, Alexander Eschweiler, held the collection of Thomas A. Greene, Milwaukee druggist and amateur geologist, plant collector, and fossil collector.

[2][5] The collection has been removed from the building, and is now displayed and housed in Lapham Hall on the UWM campus.

[2] The building has been renovated and is currently used as academic space for UWM's Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies.

It includes exquisite examples of amethyst, apatite, stibnite, copper, tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium, cobalt, nickel, mercury compounds, aluminum compounds, malachite, lapis-lazuli, tourmaline, garnet, labradorite, fluorite, beryl, and turquoise, among others.

[4] Perhaps the highlight of the mineral collection is a piece of iron meteorite that landed in nearby Washington County, Wisconsin.