The Children’s Museum in Hartford, CT, is one of the oldest children’s museums in the country. The place is relevant on ZooChat because they also have around 50 live animal taxa, ranging from mammals to herps to arthropods (and here’s a species list from their website).
Recently, the museum's property was sold and they announced they are going to relocate to a new site. Originally there were plans to also relocate the iconic life-size Sperm Whale sculpture that has stood outside the museum for decades, but this was unfortunately deemed too expensive and so now only the whale's tail will remain. Until a permanent location for the new museum is found, they are temporarily operating out of a synagogue in West Hartford.
To me, this is all pretty bad news. I haven’t been to the museum before and I was hoping to check the place out at some point this summer, although now it seems like it won't be worthwhile to go until they move out of the synagogue again. There are several additional places with animal collections in the Hartford area (like Lutz’ Children’s Museum, Eleanor Buck Wolf Nature Center, Westmoor Park, and the Connecticut Science Center) but I am probably going to wait to visit them all in a single day until after we get more concrete news about The Children’s Museum’s future.
Here are a few relevant articles on the move and the whale:
Here is a nice picture of the old building by @TinoPup (she also posted a comprehensive set of photos of the rest of the old location in the gallery):
Recently, the museum's property was sold and they announced they are going to relocate to a new site. Originally there were plans to also relocate the iconic life-size Sperm Whale sculpture that has stood outside the museum for decades, but this was unfortunately deemed too expensive and so now only the whale's tail will remain. Until a permanent location for the new museum is found, they are temporarily operating out of a synagogue in West Hartford.
To me, this is all pretty bad news. I haven’t been to the museum before and I was hoping to check the place out at some point this summer, although now it seems like it won't be worthwhile to go until they move out of the synagogue again. There are several additional places with animal collections in the Hartford area (like Lutz’ Children’s Museum, Eleanor Buck Wolf Nature Center, Westmoor Park, and the Connecticut Science Center) but I am probably going to wait to visit them all in a single day until after we get more concrete news about The Children’s Museum’s future.
Here are a few relevant articles on the move and the whale:
- West Hartford Children’s Museum moving to temporary home
- Conny the Whale’s fate still uncertain as Connecticut Children Museum prepares to move
- Save the tail! Plan to preserve Conny the Whale scales back
Here is a nice picture of the old building by @TinoPup (she also posted a comprehensive set of photos of the rest of the old location in the gallery):
