One of the oldest Children's Museum's in the country, founded in 1963, we are the only Children's Museum in the country to have been adopted by both NASA & Dept. of Energy's Office of Science. In 2007 our building was declared a NYS & Federal historic building! In 2008, we installed two beautiful new roof signs and continued our renovation. Located in the historic Bagg's Square area at the corner of Main and Railroad Streets, the five story brick building was constructed in 1893 as the headquarters for the John C. Heiber Dry Goods Company. One of the best know wholesale dry goods houses in the central and northern New York, "it once drew visitors who came on train from as far away as Albany and Syracuse to shop for dry goods". The interesting Romanesque Revival exterior remains as imposing as ever, and the charm of the period remains inside with its decoratively paneled central oak staircase, an original glass and wood paneled office, and fourteen foot high ceiling sheathed in fancy pressed tin. For years, two and a half of the five floors, each floor approximately 6,000 square feet, were used for exhibit and program areas. Today four of the five floors are open, conatining thousands of hands-on exhibits.

The Museum's only painting is "Fording the Mohawk River", 1933, by Utica Artist Egbert C. Clark.

Clark, a well known Utica Artist, was chosen in 1941 to supervise and lead the WPA Diorama Project, housed in the Museum's collection.