Posted: November 30, 2011 - 12:37am
By SHELDON GARDNER
sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com
After almost five years of work, officials at the Children’s Museum of St. Johns have found a home for a future “world-class” children’s museum.
The Children’s Museum plans to buy the Dow Museum of Historic Houses site in downtown St. Augustine and transform it into a multi-themed, locally focused museum.
“This is our first bit of big news,” Children’s Museum Executive Director Susan Connor said. “We really think this is going to be a fantastic space.”
Officials at the Children’s Museum have been working on getting the Dow property, formerly known as the Old St. Augustine Village, since May, Connor said. Museum officials entered into a six-month lease to purchase agreement earlier this month. Operated by the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, the property is a collection of nine historic houses at the intersection of St. George, Bridge and Cordova streets.
“The Dow Museum meets all of our criteria to establish an amazing Children’s Museum for our community,” said Ben Platt, president of the Children’s Museum.
Deborah Allen, interim executive director of the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, said the Dow Museum was not for sale, but officials chose to offer the property for sale after seeing plans for the Children’s Museum.
“We all kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Wow,’” Allen said.
Allen said the museum will also preserve the legacy of the donors.
“They are going to maintain that historic connection with the Dows,” Allen said. “We like what they want to do with that property ... a children’s museum — how wonderful for the community.”
While it wasn’t making millions, the Dow Museum was profitable, Allen said. If the sale is completed in six months, it will not be financially motivated.
“We weren’t looking to get rid of the property,” she said.
The negotiated price for the entire property, which includes nine historic homes, is $1.5 million. That is far below what it is worth, Allen said. That’s around how much money the Museum of Arts and Sciences has paid to renovate the property.
The Children’s Museum is a not-for-profit organization that had been functioning as a “museum without walls” by bringing exhibits and activities to county residents since a group of parents, citizens and professionals founded it in 2007.
Preserving the historic homes while opening up new educational and cultural resources downtown is the goal behind buying the property, Platt said.
During the six-month lease period, the Children’s Museum will use 246 St. George St. as its office and meeting space and will use the time to come up with a budget for the renovation and exhibits. Other parts of the Dow Museum will remain open to the public and be operated by the Museum of Arts and Sciences during that time.
Officials hope to have part of the museum open to the public by early 2013 and every part of the 16,000- to 20,000-square-foot museum finished in time for the 450th celebrations in 2015.
“We know this property is going to allow us to create a world-class children’s museum in the nation’s oldest city,” Connor said.
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Here’s what will be in museum:
■ The Town Center — Will include a hospital, supermarket, salon and barber shop, music store and art gallery. It will feature child-sized stores and centers that encourage children to try on adult roles and solve problems. There will be a gazebo for storytelling and performances, a mini gas pump, play cars and trucks and police patrol cars that will allow children to pretend to make deliveries to stores, run errands and be police officers.
■ Life on the River — The centerpiece for the area will be a climbable fishing boat with fishing gear, navigation station and living quarters. The boat will be surrounded by a series of waist-high water and bubble tables and a fishing tank. The area will help children learn about marine life and experiment with properties of water and bubbles.
■ St. Augustine Story — This area will help children learn about local history. Camp Castillo will feature a play space for toddlers surrounded by a moat. The Coastal Railways exhibit will feature a replica of Henry Flagler’s personal rail car and train tables with miniature trains, tracks, and bridges that children can manipulate.
■ Spuds ‘N’ Buds Farm — Children can learn about the importance of farming in St. Johns County and Hastings, the “Potato Capital of Florida,” in this area. It will include a community garden, a climb-aboard tractor, animal science lab, and a potato processing plant.
■ Our Beautiful Beaches — This area will invite visitors to explore elements the ecosystem of St. Johns County’s beaches. Murals will show a skyline and horizon of a sunny day at the beach. Floors will represent the division between sand and sea. Birds will hang from the ceiling, a climb-aboard whale will swim in the “ocean.” Children will be able to observe and manipulate wave actions in a see-through teeter totter and a weather theater will recreate hurricanes, fog, sea breezes and other conditions.
Source: Children’s Museum of St. Johns
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