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 bridg ...

in the

Los Angeles Civic Center The Civic Center neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, is the administrative core of the City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, and a complex of city, county, state, and federal government offices, buildings, and courthouses. It is locat ...

. 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

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

, Indianapolis and

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

. 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

Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlockin ...

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

Velcro Velcro, officially known as Velcro IP Holdings LLC and trading as Velcro Companies, is a British privately held company, founded by Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral in the 1950s. It is the original manufacturer of hook-and-loop fast ...

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

photosensitive Photosensitivity is the amount to which an object reacts upon receiving photons, especially visible light. In medicine, the term is principally used for abnormal reactions of the skin, and two types are distinguished, photoallergy and phototoxicity. ...

wall that would imprint shadows when a

strobe light A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope. The word originated from the Ancient Greek ('), meaning ...

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

Zoetrope A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. It was basically a cylindrical variation of the phénak ...

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 ( ja, リトル・トーキョー) 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 ...

, and another at the San Fernando Valley's

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

. 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

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

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 and the Taco Bell Discovery Science Center, is a science museum in Santa Ana, California, with more than 100 hands-on science exhibits designed to spark children's ...

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