It started as the Junior Museum in 1959. Two years later, and 50 years ago this week, it officially opened on Oct. 21, 1961. It’s the South Florida Science Museum, next to the Palm Beach Zoo in Dreher Park in West Palm Beach.
Here’s more from colleagues Alexandra Seltzer and Staci Sturrock and from a 2004 article by former colleague Tim O’Meilia:
It had taken the Junior League of the Palm Beaches two years to raise $100,000, one tea and living room fashion show at a time.
The Junior Museum of Palm Beach County was conceived as a natural history museum. But with the space race off and running, the emphasis on science took over almost immediately.
Early displays were a giant RL10 rocket engine built locally by Pratt & Whitney. “Suzie,” a young mastodon whose bones were found on Okeechobee Boulevard, arrived in 1965.
That same year, the place, known as the Science Museum and Planetarium of Palm Beach County, opened a $107,000 planetarium, one of only three in Florida. Officials asked NASA to send an astronaut and promised to name the planetarium for him. Four years later, that little-known spaceman, Buzz Aldrin, became the second man on the moon.
The museum expanded in 1971, adding the present main hall and the Gibson Observatory telescope.
In 1991, it got its current name.
The Dinosaurs Outdoors exhibit, on display from 1998 to 1999, drew more than 200,000 people.
In 2001, the museum began raising $42 million — later $58 million — for a 98,000-square-foot center to rise on 11 acres in Lake Lytal Park. The idea eventually was abandoned. The museum later discussed moving to Flagler Drive, but it opted to stay put.
Today, the science museum is the nation’s second-busiest science center, in terms of annual guests per square foot. It covers 23,000-square feet. It has a $2.2 million annual budget and has about 110,000 visitors a year.
Armed with a $2.4 million bond from the county and $1.8 million in private money, it plans a renovation and a 1,200-square-foot addition expected to include a new entry way, a traveling exhibit hall, and more classroom space.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (right) and then-West Palm Beach Mayor Fred O. Easley pose at 1970 rededication of the planetarium, which was named for Aldrin. (Photo courtesy of the South Florida Science Museum)
Early 1970s photo of fossilized mastodon skeleton, dubbed “Suzie” which was found off Okeechobee Boulevard by construction workers in 1969. (Photo courtesy of the South Florida Science Museum)
Tags: museums
The catastrophic earthquake in March has brought focus on Japan and its grieving compatriots here in America, and South Florida. In February, this reporter took his in-laws, visiting from Indiana, to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens near Delray Beach.
The Yamato-kan, the original museum building, which had opened in 1977, now includes an exhibit about the colony. It mentions that a 1926 constitutional amendment, which would give the legislature the right to ban land ownership by aliens ineligible for citizenship, “is still in effect today.”
Well, didn’t a 2008 constitutional amendment take care of that? Whoops. No. Amendment 1 failed, 48 to 52 percent.
Here are excerpts of a piece our Tallahassee colleague, Dara Kam, wrote in advance of the 2008 vote:
The Florida legislature added the “alien land law” to the state constitution in 1926, restricting the ownership of property by immigrants ineligible for citizenship. Florida is the only state with such a constitutional provision.
Federal law then granted naturalized citizenship only to whites and to blacks of African descent.
The legislature never passed any laws under the provision and could not anyway, experts said, because it violates the U.S. Constitution by discriminating by race.
Sponsors said taking the 23 words out of the state constitution would be symbolic similar to removing laws allowing slavery.
Proponents feared confused voters would think the question covers illegal aliens or terrorists. Asian-American civil rights organizations were mum on the amendment, and even national experts on the topic of alien land laws were unaware that it was on the ballot, fueling worries that it might not pass — which it didn’t.
Morikami, of course, had its start in the short-lived Yamato Colony, founded at the turn of the 20th century in Boca Raton. Starting in 1974, former colonist and naturalized U.S. citizen George Morikami (pictured above) donated nearly 200 acres to Palm Beach County for the museum that bears his name.
Special thanks to Morikami cultural director Tom Gregerson.
The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens near Delray Beach has an exhibit about the short-lived Yamato Colony. It was founded at the turn of the 20th century in Boca Raton. Starting in 1974, former colonist George Morikami donated nearly 200 acres to Palm Beach County for the museum that bears his name. (Courtesy of the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens)
Readers: Our April 14 column said Cap Dimick misspelled the Palm Beach road as Chilian Avenue “and it’s still spelled that way.” Post staff researcher Michelle Quigley reminds us the town council voted in 2003 to change it to the proper Chilean.
Tags: Delray Beach, immigrants, museums
On Nov. 23, 1965, thieves cleaned out much of the Norton’s jade collection, a haul worth about $1 million. All but three of the 100 pieces were recovered three months later in a Broward County garage. The theft was thought to have been tied to other major crimes in south Florida. The museum, now known as the Norton Museum of Art, still owns the jades it acquired in 1942 from the collection of Stanley Charles Nott. Read more about the history of the Norton Museum of Art here and here.
Tags: art, museums, notorious crimes, This Week in History
On Oct. 21, 1961, the Junior Museum of Palm Beach County, now known as the South Florida Science Museum, opened with exhibits featuring local geology, marine life, birds and agriculture. The proposed NASA exhibit promised previews of future space plans, including the man on the moon program. The June 1960 groundbreaking ceremony attracted hundreds of local children who brought their own shovels to dig for treasure. The museum was a project of the Junior League of the Palm Beaches.
From the December 30, 1976, Palm Beach Post: “Seven-year-old Jeff Krosner, of Boca Raton, took a deep breath and descended to the cramped innards of a real yellow submarine. The Tigershark sub, built by the Perry Submarine Co. of Riviera Beach, is a new addition to the Dreher Park Science Museum in West palm Beach. For the admission price to the museum, children are welcome to find out for themselves how a boat can sail beneath the sea. (Palm Beach Post staff file photo)
Tags: museums, This Week in History
By Michelle Quigley
On Feb. 8, 1941, the Norton Gallery and School of Art opened its doors to the public in West Palm Beach. The museum was founded by Chicago industrialist Ralph Hubbard Norton and his wife, Elizabeth Calhoun Norton, pictured below.
Tags: museums, Norton Museum of Art, This Week in History
