The Mesa Verde Museum is one of the oldest in the National Park Service. Constructed between 1922-25, it replaced a log cabin that had exhibited cultural items since 1917. The museum was built using Cliff House Sandstone, the same stone used by the Ancestral Pueblo people to construct nearby Spruce Tree House and other cliff dwellings, in an architectural style known as Modified Pueblo Revival, which was inspired by the architecture of Mesa Verde's descendant communities.

Today, the Museum is part of the Mesa Verde Administrative District National Historic Landmark. Mesa Verde National Park is currently in the process of a multi-year collaborative project to comprehensively redesign the museum exhibits.