The doors of the Academy of Natural Sciences closed an hour ago. Is this really how it’s going to end? | Mike Newall

Time has never been so precious at the Academy of Natural Sciences. The clock is officially ticking on Philly’s nearly 200-year-old palace of prehistoric marvels and natural wonders — the oldest natural history museum in the Western Hemisphere, and treasured playland of my six year old, who, like centuries of children, imagines that the old bones are just waiting to roar to life.

The Academy’s museum closed to the public an hour ago. It’s last day operation is slated for Wednesday.

It didn’t have to be this way.

Friday saw an eleventh-hour Raiders of the lost Ark-style rescue attempt of the beloved, if aging museum, which was founded in 1828 and first opened on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 1876.

That last second whipcrack came in the form of philanthropic millions from the William Penn Foundation, one of the largest and most influential funders of arts and culture in the region. The money would allow the endangered institution to stay open for at least a year, so that a long-term solution to preserve the museum — and its treasured specimen collections — in Philadelphia could be explored.

But instead of taking the final leap Indy-style before the floor drops out on the museum, Drexel offered a tepid statement saying it had yet to see a proposal that offered a “permanent, sustainable path forward for the academy’s museum.”

Why?

My colleagues Peter Dobrin and Sue Snyder previously reported that Drexel University and the Academy plan to relocate the institution’s 19 million specimens and sell the building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Behind the scenes, sources say Drexel, more than $20 million in debt and suffering shrinking enrollment, has wanted the building off its books for more than a year. The cash-strapped school, according to my source, had kept the museum’s potential shuttering quiet for months

On Friday, David L. Cohen, the big-league fixer negotiating talks between Drexel and the Academy at the behest of Gov. Josh Shapiro, told the Inquirer that do-gooders should save their checks until a new museum space can be found. Otherwise, they’re merely “Band-Aids,” he said.

But Band-Aids is where Drexel and the Academy have gotten us.

In the current equation, Philly threatens to lose a treasure trove — and a treasured space. Memories can be fickle. But few school children forget their first awe-inspiring, imagination-fueling face-to-face with a towering T-Rex, or even a frightening fiberglass replica like the Academy’s. A first class city demands a lot of things — but it should definitely include a dino museum.

And Philly agrees. Resistance had already been real. A petition to keep the Academy open to visitors — its research work will continue — grows well over 100,000 signatures. Nor-easter gusts and rains did little to dampen the emotions of thousands of museum supporters who braved weekend rallies and vigils.

City Council has thrown its trowel into the fray. Councilmembers Nina Ahmad and Jeffrey Young Jr. will lead oversight hearings — with subpoena powers — on the museum closure.

There’s more than enough blame. Plagued by its own rising deficits, Drexel — which once optimistically described the merger as a “Dragosaurus,” a play on its dragon mascot — came to see the academy as just a drag.

Meanwhile, the museum failed to launch a capital campaign or meaningfully modernize. Attendance more than halved.

Late last year — when according to a source Drexel and the Academy were already discussing a potential closure — Academy officials were exploring possibly sharing eons of natural treasures with a museum in Cleveland or Abu Dhabi.

And not a peep to the public.

Drexel and Academy board members say they want to keep the Academy in Philadelphia. But it’s hard to have faith. Not when Drexel recently had its financial rating downgraded by Moody’s — and not when the best anyone could come up with was Cleveland. Not when lifelines that would keep the museum doors open for city schoolchildren are dismissed as “Band-Aids.”

For now, the clock ticks even as pre-pandemic crowds flooded the museum on it’s last days, proof that many Philadelphians still expect some Paleozoic Era fun in their lives.

Time was a theme among the museum’s final visitors. Marie Gilbert, who is 80, once managed the Academy’s Changing Exhibits Hall. Nine of her grandchildren have volunteered at the museum. Her great grandson, Landon, who is 6, and diagnosed with rare cancer, is the family’s biggest fan.

He loves to lose himself amid the ancient bones and lifelike tableaus. For the boy, the museum serves as a time machine, she said. When I met her last Thursday, Gilbert said she had held off on telling him the museum would be closing. “I have hope,” she said.

But not anymore. I called her a few minutes after hundreds of visitors and families processed solemnly out the museum door one final time, while protesters chanted in the rain.

“My hope has been crushed,” she said.

It may take many months before law enforcement officials decide whether District Attorney Larry Krasner broke federal laws while overseeing a controversial post-conviction case. For those who need one, a recap: Earlier this month, a federal judge — the same stern arbiter who dispatched former District Attorney Seth Williams to the big house for half a decade — said Krasner may have committed crimes, like perjury, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. Now, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will investigate, with some testimony coming from within Krasner’s own office. A polarizing reformer and pugilist happy to portray himself as a political outsider, claims the criminal referral is motivated by Trump’s Justice Department.

But as my colleague Anna Orso pointed out, Philly politics awaits no verdict, and questions have already emerged about Krasner’s political future, and possible mayoral run in 2027. Sniffing blood, at least two elected Democratic have scoped out potential replacements if Krasner were to get forced from office, Orso reports. It will be interesting to watch in the coming days how many Democrats break their silence to support Krasner — or, whether, with only eight months before May’s primary election, heavyweights, like Councilmember Kendra Brooks, announce mayoral runs.

Mercifully, the rare nor’easter that walloped the Jersey Shore with heavy rain and flooding over weekend — but only caused minor disruption in Philly Sunday — looks to be heading out of the region overnight, forecasters say. Showers may continue into early Monday, and it may take days for Shore floodwaters to recede, so pack an umbrella tomorrow — and say a quick prayer for the beaches.