The Children’s Museum, Utica, NY

Where do I begin? The Children’s Museum in Utica has over 24,000 square feet of exploration space. It took us three hours to get through the entire building, and I don’t think we even saw everything. Admission is pricey ($9.00 for anyone over the age of 1 year) and this has been the main reason why we haven’t visited in nine years. But the children get their own allowances and they wanted to go, so we split the admission prices 50/50. Great deal, I’d say!

The Children’s Museum is right next to historic Bagg’s Square, of which I wrote here. The Children’s Museum is a testament to the ingenuity of moms. It was a group of women– the Junior League– in 1963 who started out with a lifesize model of an Iroquois longhouse in a library basement, and expanded the project into four stories of displays for children of all ages. This place has EVERYTHING, except maybe Audemars Piguet offshore chronographs, but then like I said, we didn’t see everything. I snapped almost 100 photos, and that was after whittling my choices down. I obviously cannot post all my photos here. If you’d like to see some really cool stuff, check out my Flickr page.

The kids had an absolute blast. My kids are older (youngest is 11) and we still had a blast. There is a cute playroom for toddlers, but everything else is geared for kids ages 5 to 100.

Shall I possibly list off everything we saw? No way! How about everything we saw that interested us? No way! How about the top fifty? Wow… my blog posts can only be so long, you know! The place is filled with old stuff. And it’s all stuff you can touch and experiment with.

Here’s Injane checking out an old telephone operator board. One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy…

Here’s a cool see-through car that you can explore. Has a crash dummy, too.

I, of course, loved the architecture of the building. It used to be an old dry goods store. Can you imagine?! A dry goods store– with an oak staircase, transom windows, tin ceilings, oak flooring, federal-style loft windows?! My house isn’t even built this nicely.

We loved the Iroquois longhouse. History oozed from everything.

I love the replica Hiawatha wampum belt. Looks just like the real thing.

There were several pianos and musical instruments in the museum. Several uprights, and some baby grands, an old organ, and assorted xylophones. What blast!

The place also had toys, clothing, dioramas, reptiles, bugs, life-sized displays to play make-believe, a stage with assorted pianos (all out of tune), Legos, displays of community events (like a kayaking group, and the Ride for Missing Children’s Group), puppets, fossils, everything!

I really liked the radio station display. I worked in radio for several years, and seeing this brought back such memories!

I will add that it is rather disconcerting to see equipment that I used in my younger years labeled as “nostalgic.” :S

As seems to happen wherever we go, a photographer from the local newspaper shows up on the day as we do. For some reason, my kids usually have their pictures taken by photographers. They’ve been in the newspaper a few times now. I took a photo of the photographer photographing my kids.

The kids didn’t make it in the papers this time around.

Here’s a photo of a pacu, a fish native to the Amazon river. He’s a big one.

They also had a big turtle, a gerbil, and a tarantula! Several years back, there was a clear plastic display filled with honeybees making honeycomb, but the bees are gone. I saw a sticker that said there was a mite infestation (which I’d been hearing is responsible for our honeybees dying off), so I guess the bees were removed. Too bad; that was one of my favorite exhibits.

Last time we visited, the fourth floor was undeveloped. It was a treat to see new exhibits. They have a small (genuine) airplane the kids can hop in and work the controls.

There’s also the world-renowned Hot Wheels collection. The toys went way back to- what?- the 50s? Quite a big collection.

There is just too much to mention, really. The nice thing about this Children’s Museum is that it is a little beat up. It’s old and creaky and some of the stuff is obviously very worn. But that’s part of its charm. You can handle and play with things and not worry about breaking them. You can relax and not have to watch your p’s and q’s that you might drop something. It’s truly a kids’ place.

Outside, there’s a small park around Bagg’s Tavern, and a few train cars to explore. The trains were locked up, so we couldn’t go inside, but we could peer through the windows. And the kids had no problem having fun on the train decks.

What started out as an after-school project by community moms and the Oneida Indians has grown to become a wonderful glimpse into our community’s past. I don’t think we’ll ever be too old not to visit the Children’s Museum!

A Reader’s Response to Utica’s History

I’ve been so wildly busy now that the warm, spring weather has finally arrived. We’ve not had any time to travel at all! the kids were moping today, wanting to “go somewhere.” All I can do is comfort them my promising a trip soon (we’ve going up toward the Adirondacks next week, so I’ll have to plan something).

I’ve been extremely busy getting my gardens prepared for the growing season and trying my hand at planting a grape vine. I’m excited over that! I don’t think I’ll ever get into a wine club or anything, but it would be gratifying to have fresh grapes at the table and a bottle or two of my own homemade wine!

At any rate, we’re hoping to check out the Adirondacks soon. In the meantime, I’m going over old trips and republishing them for those of you who haven’t seen them. I also got a terrific response to my post on Bagg’s Square in Utica. A former Utican, living through the “Sin City” days of the 50s and 60s, sent me such a rich email that i asked him if I could publish it for others to enjoy. He graciously gave his permission. I suppose his story tells the story of so many Upstate New York cities in the 50s and 60s. Upstate was on the verge of the edge of the steep decline we are experiencing today. Due mostly to corruption and changes in our state constitution that favored Downstate policies, Upstate New York is still reeling. I’ll leave you with his email. It is an interesting read: Read more