Please Touch Museum

Infobox Museum
name= Please Touch Museum At Memorial Hall


imagesize= 250px
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established= October 2, 1976
location= Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park
4231 Avenue of the Republic Philadelphia, Pennsylvania(Scheduled to open on October 18, 2008)
type= Children'sPlease Touch Museum. "Please Touch Museum" brochure, circa 2007.]
visitors=
director= Laura Foster
curator=
publictransit= SEPTA Routes 38, 15, 40, 64
website= [http://www.pleasetouchmuseum.org Please Touch Museum]

The Please Touch Museum is a children's museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The museum focuses on teaching children through interactive exhibits and special events. It originally opened at the Academy of Natural Sciences on October 2, 1976 and moved to another location on nearby Cherry Street several months later. In 1983, the museum moved to its next location, 210 North 21st Street, one block west of The Franklin. On September 1, 2008, the museum closed and will offically reopen on October 18 at Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park with three and a half times the size of exhibits of the older location.

The New Home: Memorial Hall

On February 14, 2005, the City of Philadelphia and its Fairmount Park Commission granted a eighty-year lease to Please Touch Museum and allowed them to open a new museum in the last major building left from the 1876 Centennial Exposition. Ground was broken on December 15 of that year.

Among the attractions in the museum when opened on October 18th are:
*A retrospective of the 1876 Expo, including a restored miniature diorama of the park;
*Expanded Alice in Wonderland, River Ramblings and other play areas from their former location;
*City Capers, which will feature the SEPTA Bus and the John Wanamaker Rocket Monorail from the defunct department store;
*The set from the "Captain Noah and His Magical Ark" TV show, donated by WPVI-TV;
*The Woodside Park carousel, built by the Philadelphia-based Dentzel Carousel Company in 1908, on loan from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania;
*A re-creation of the arm and torch from the Statue of Liberty, created from discarded toys;
*A new "Please Touch Cafe", with healthy pizzas and more.

Footnotes