Today, the Birthplace Memorial Museum shelters Twain's birthplace cabin. Mark Twain once wrote, "Recently someone in Missouri haas sent me a picture of the house I was born in. Heretofore I have always stated it was a palace, but I shall be more guarded now." Humble though it may be, the cabin in which he was born has been preserved for visitors the world over to see. This museum, incorporated into Misssouri's historical site system in 1960 was designed by the firm of Swanson, Terney, and Brey, and constructed in 1959 at a cost of $250,000. It was the result of nearly forty years of effort and cooperation among many people and organizations. Its purpose was to commemorate the location of Mark Twain's birth and to provide a protective shelter for the two-room cabin in which he was born.

Architecturally, the museum exterior is composed of Missouri limestone, aluminum and glass. The roof sheltering the birth cabin is a self-supporting, hyperbolic paraboloid made a three-inch reinforced concrete. The 12,000 square feet interior is divided into a museum, office, research library, three fireproof storage areas, and restrooms.

In the village of Florida, Missouri, a red granite monument marks the original location of the birthplace cabin. Surrounding the Memorial Museum is the Mark Twain State Park, consisting of about 2,750 acres of camping, hiking, swimming, fishing, and access areas to Mark Twain Lake