St. Louis City Museum is playground for all ages

The City Museum in St. Louis is part play area, circus, museum and madhouse.

It’s difficult to label this attraction. It may be called a museum, but it’s more of a play ground for children of all ages. And how people like it! the museum had about 800,000 visitors last year, making it one of St. Louis’ top attractions.

The first floor is the main play area. Attractions are created from repurposed metal, plastic and other items.

The first floor has a huge whale and sea life area, tree house area and a cave area.

The whale model takes up a good chunk of real estate on the main floor. Models of sharks and seals are available for kids to play on and check out.

A tank stands nearby, waiting to be full of water. Once it reaches it limits, it tips over and water falls out, filling up a small lagoon tub. It looks like kids will get soaked, but it stops short of doing that. At least it did during our visit.

A large aquarium is located in the whale area. Turtles and fish cohabitate in the tank. It was actually quite peaceful to stand at the end of the aquarium and watch fish swim about and turtles “sun” themselves or take a swim. All this, while children and ‘tweens dart around you.

We climbed a couple of the tree houses. They are quite interesting pieces of art. They have iron “tubes” to climb through. They are just really cool pieces to watch as kids of all ages (yes, I do mean adults, too) check them out, climb them and run around on the tree house level.

A slide sat at the end of the first floor for folks to climb the stairs to and then ride down. Lisa checked it out for us.

The caves were interesting to check out. While obviously designed for all age groups, I found some of the artwork trended toward adults.

Overall, the artwork was family-oriented. Cave openings had face designs. It was very cool. Apparently, the caves can up several floors. We went to a couple of floors in the caves. I could easily spend a lot of time in those caves.

Once done with the first floor, we climbed the serpent-designed staircase.

The mezzanine is home to Samwiches, a concession stand. Prices for a variety of sandwiches and drinks seemed quite reasonable.

The second floor is home to three major attractions – shoelace factory, vintage opera posters and World Aquarium (which is an additional cost).

We checked out the posters. I thought the area was cool. This attraction trended toward adults.

Moving to the third floor, we spent a lot of time here.

This floor is home to a skateboard area, toddler play area, train rides, circus act, beatnik collection, architecture museum and an architecture school exhibit.

We checked out the architecture school exhibit – Elmslie and Sullivan. This had pieces of architecture from the Chicago School of Architecture.

A neat section of the floor is dedicated to St. Louis architecture. The Architecture Museum contains pieces of old buildings in the St. Louis area that were demolished or renovated. The City Museum obtains a piece of the old building and displays it. That helps keep pieces of St. Louis history alive for future generations.

We checked out a juggling and gymnastic act in a room that looked like a circus tent. The two young performers were amazing. They used some alternative music as the background for their juggling act. Then, one of them balanced on a series of stacked chairs. Very entertaining.

Beatnik Bob’s was an “interesting” area to visit. It’s full of all things eclectic. It is supposed to resemble a carnival midway. It succeeded.

The world’s “biggest” pair of underwear is on display.

Nearby is a large ice cream cone.

An exhibit of St. Louis arches stands in a display case.

Odds and ends make up Bob’s.

The fourth floor didn’t have any exhibits for us to check out. They are working on some new ones.

The roof is home to a roller coaster. It’s open during the spring and summer months, so we didn’t get to go up there. Sadness.

They have a 10-story slide, too. That was closed during our visit.

Outside the building is MonstroCity.

People can explore MonstroCity’s wrought iron climbing area, which includes an airplane fuselage.

A huge ball pit is located near the entrance. It looks like a lot of fun.

I’m not sure I did the place justice. It just appears to be a place where someone found something at a junk yard or garage sale and thought, “Hey, this would make a neat climbing toy.”

However, the City Museum is a fun place to spend hours and hours and hours. And not get bored.

Check it out when in St. Louis. It is a cool place to visit with or without kids. If you take the 10-story slide, let us know.

For more information on the City Museum, please visit www.citymuseum.org.

DISCLAIMER: Thanks to the St. Louis CVB for arranging the complimentary tickets. However, all views and opinions are ours.