St. Louis City Museum is a museum like no other

 

Louis City Museum

By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ, AP Business Writer

ST. LOUIS — Do not expect to find the Mona Lisa here. Or a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.

Instead, this museum features a 10-story slide that whizzes guests of all ages from the roof to a subterranean cave.

Welcome to City Museum, an ever-evolving art project that is unlike any museum you have ever seen. In fact, calling it a museum is a bit of a stretch. The converted shoe warehouse is closer to a mad scientist's workshop than a cultural institution.

That does not mean it isn't fun.

There is an oversized ball pit, a miniature railroad, rooftop Ferris wheel and countless hands-on exhibits. Throw in a 1924 Wurlitzer pipe organ, neon signs, preserved butterflies and the world's largest pencil and you have one of the world's most eclectic collections.

"It's hard to describe. It's really just an evolving sculpture in itself," says Rick Erwin, the museum's director. "It's part playground, part artist pavilion."

The museum, which saw 710,000 visitors last year, is a lasting tribute to the imagination of its late founder, Bob Cassilly, an artist who bought the shoe warehouse in 1993. In, 1995, Cassilly started construction and two years later City Museum opened.