Photography by Jonathan Pollack
When you walk into the old schoolhouse building in Southern Illinois’ historic Leclaire neighborhood, it feels more like you’re visiting someone’s house than entering the Edwardsville Children’s Museum (722 Holyoake, Edwardsville, Ill., 618-692-2094, edwardsvillechildrensmuseum.org).
“It’s very small-town, and the workers are very small-town, and the people are kind of like ‘Oh, nice to see you,’ and they know all of the kids who come in,” says Brooke Lunn, a camp volunteer at the museum.
Kids can explore the three rooms inside: a science room; a dress-up area; and a pretend-play area called Star City, where kids rule a community that features a market, a bank, a police department, a fire station, a library, a hospital, a post office, and an airport.
“The kids don’t all necessarily have to stay together,” Lunn says. “If one wants to play cops and robbers upstairs, the other can play downstairs. I think it just gives them a chance to pick on their own and be independent.”
Glen Carbon, Ill., resident Jennifer Murphy likes that you don’t have to worry about kids getting lost there, as her son momentarily did during a recent visit to a larger kids’ attraction.
The museum is open Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with admission just $5 per person (and free for children age 1 and under). In addition to open play, it offers preschool playgroups, Girl Scout classes, birthday parties, and camps.
But the nonprofit has been fighting to survive. “So many donations went down just because of the economy. And a lot of the school districts in the area and surrounding area cut their budgets, so we didn’t book as many field trips,” says McKenzie Breihan, president of the museum’s board of directors. “We went from 600 field trips a year down to 300.”
In November, the #SaveOurMuseum campaign in support of the attraction set a goal of raising $100,000 by May. At press time, it had brought in $60,000. Breihan says the museum needs additional supporters and sponsors to fund new exhibits and maintain the old ones. Without the help, the Metro East staple may be forced to bow out for good.
