As preparations begin for the city's new Triple-A baseball stadium, demolition began for El Paso's beloved science museum.

The Insights El Paso Science Center closed its Santa Fe Street location Dec. 15, and the first wall came down Monday afternoon.

About a dozen spectators gathered to get their final glimpses of the museum. Joe Borunda said that it was a shame to be standing there to watch history come down.

"It's a beautiful building. Why tear it down?" Borunda said. "It's called progress, but progress costs money, and the taxpayers have to pay for that."

In the museum's place will be fresh turf and aspiring minor-league baseball players. The land on which the museum stood will become the outfield area of the baseball stadium.

City engineer Alan Shubert previously told KFOX14 News that the demolition will be a fairly standard tear-down operation that could take a few days. 

The contract for demolition was $1.5 million, split between the museum and City Hall, but Shubert expects it to possibly come in under budget.

Borunda feels that taxpayers are the ones footing the bill for something they didn't have control over. 

"Now they're spending millions of dollars to tear them down, and then they're going to spend millions of dollars to put the stadium up. And who's paying for all that? The taxpayers," Borunda said. "If the city wants to do something, they're going to do it no matter what you say."

Any metal in the building will be recycled. The subcontractor for the demolition is Grant MacKay Demolition Co. of Houston, which won the contract with the lowest bid.

A new home for the museum has not been established, but museum officials have said they are looking into teaming up with the El Paso Independent School District to possibly move into the old Alamo Elementary building.

Sometime next month, the museum's longtime neighbor will be knocked down as well. City Hall is scheduled to be imploded in April, but an official date has not been released by city officials.