The Children's Museum of Los Angeles opened to the public on June 11, 1979, and operated for 21 years. It was located at the

Los Angeles Mall The Los Angeles Mall is a small shopping center and series of plazas (public squares) at the Los Angeles Civic Center, between Main and Los Angeles Streets on the north and south sides of Temple Street, connected by both a pedestrian bridge ...

in the

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. It specifically catered to children, with the purpose of educating, entertaining, and enriching children's lives in the greater Los Angeles area. It was modeled after the children's museums in

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and

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. The museum featured a city street (with cars and motorcycles) with a sewer system that could be crawled through, Grandma's attic with wearable costumes, a large

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play area, and a section called Sticky City consisting of large stuffed fabric blocks with

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that stuck to each other and could be used for building. There was also a TV studio where children could be camera operators or news anchors, a large

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wall that would imprint shadows when a

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was set off, a workshop where visitors could make their own

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animations, and other activities.

Closing and bankruptcy

Due to the need for space and access the museum's Board of Governors decided to close the museum on August 27, 2000, with the intention of creating two new facilities: one in

Little Tokyo, Los Angeles Little Tokyo (), also known as Little Tokyo Historic District, is an ethnically Japanese American district in downtown Los Angeles and the heart of the largest Japanese-American population in North America. It is the largest and most populous of ...

, and another at the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

Hansen Dam Hansen Dam is a dam built for flood control in the northeastern San Fernando Valley, in the Lake View Terrace neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.Pitarre, Alyson. "Where country living sidles up to the city." ''Los Angeles Times''. June 12, ...

. The Little Tokyo facility was indefinitely postponed in October 2002, and while construction of the Hansen Dam facility was begun with bond money in October 2005, the non-profit running the museum was unable to raise sufficient funds to populate the interior. The museum filed for bankruptcy on April 17, 2009, after investor Bruce Friedman had his assets frozen by a judge at the request of the

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in March 2009, having accused him of stealing $17 million from investors. His donation of $10 million was subsequently withdrawn. The museum needed a further $22 million for construction to be completed. The city of Los Angeles had also invested over $10 million.

Discovery Cube Los Angeles

The City of Los Angeles entered into a partnership with

Discovery Cube Orange County The Discovery Cube Orange County, formerly known as the Discovery Science Center, Taco Bell Discovery Science Center, or simply The Cube, is a science museum in Santa Ana, California, with more than 100 hands-on science exhibits designed to spar ...

to take over and operate the empty Hansen Dam facility. City funding was allocated in April 2012, and federal funding was approved in January 2013. This satellite campus, named Discovery Cube Los Angeles, opened on November 13, 2014.

References

Children's museums in California Museums in Los Angeles Buildings and structures in Downtown Los Angeles Buildings and structures in the San Fernando Valley Lake View Terrace, Los Angeles Museums established in 1979 Museums disestablished in 2009 1979 establishments in California 2009 disestablishments in California Defunct museums in California {{LosAngeles-struct-stub