Visiting family here from Austin Texas and needed something for the kiddo to do while here. Took…read morehim here, he had a blast. I mention Austin because we have this place called the Thinkery which I can compare this with. The Thinkery is relatively new, super expensive, and very pretentious. Whereas this is much older, and while some parts are missing/broken, it had charm, character, was well priced and was accessible to all. My fav part was the large climbing structure. Would visit again when in the area.

Who would have thought that there was such a hidden gem in Holyoke. I absolutely love this place…read more At first I was a little hesitant about coming here based on the limited pictures and reviews. I am not going to lie, I don't spend much time in the Holyoke area, so I was a little skeptical when I was driving past all these abandoned buildings. The parking isn't bad and a few quarters take you a long way here. I know people are little dubious about the street parking, but I have never had an issue, aside from a few of the parking meters being inoperable. There are also two garages that are across the street from the facility and the pricing for that is also fair. Remember bring change!!! I had to learn that the hard way. When I went into the building, I amazed. It is such a cute little facility. It is two stories, but the top level is more of a sitting area. You pay to get into the facility downstairs. There are elevators if you are wondering. The staircase is the way I like to go down because there is an artsy little metal dog that is there and my son always wants to check it out. Before you enter there is a little area where you can hang your coats. People normally leave diaper bags and lunches there. I always pack a little snack for my guy and leave it there. The restroom is also in this area. No food and water is actually allowed in the museum, unless you are heading to the back for a scheduled birthday party. The prices to get in are super cheap. I paid at the cash register and the cashier stamped our hands. After that we were free to roam. There are numerous play stations in this museum. They have an astonishing climbing area, a water works area, a building room, a mini construction site, an airflow center, bubble makers, shadow room, ambulance, fire truck, costumes, grocery store, theatre, a small slide, a toddler area... We can literally spend hours here. My son enjoyed himself so much that I decided to get a family pass, we have been here about every other week since my first trip here. I even booked his party this summer here. I can't wait for all his friends to play with him here. Mom and dad are getting a little sick of climbing through the playscape with him. LOL. Honestly, this is a great place for your kid to exert their energy. I wish I came here sooner, it would have been a more active winter. I recommend all parents to bring their little people here.

We only did the Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden which is next to the Museum. We were early and just…read morepassing through. Parking and Garden was free (weekend) and just a really cool walk down memory lane in a well-done garden. The Sculptures were of some of the our favorite characters from the beloved Dr. Suess. A very nice tribute to a man who still brings the love of reading to all ages. His words were full of wisdom and knowledge hidden between the lines of rhymes.

This is one of the 5 museums included within tickets of Springfield Museums. It is very designed…read morefor kids, lots of colors, arts, decor, legos, pretend play. On lower level, they have creative activities for kids. On second floor, there's more history on the real life Dr. Seuss. Our 5yo spent about 1.5 hours here. Few associates are around to tidy up things and help guests. Restrooms are very well maintained.

The only thing worth seeing in this museum was the poison dart frogs. Everything else was…read morereplicas, hardly anything was original except for the gems. It just felt old and not much to see compared to other science museums I've been in. This wasn't really on my list. I wanted to see the Dr. Seuss museum but you had to buy general admission for all the museums in the complex and the ticket booth happened to be located in the science museum.

We came from out of town for a nice stroll though the museums with our toddler but only hit two:…read morethe Science museum and the Dr. Suess museum. Both were well done, though obviously there is nothing else that can compare with the Dr. Suess museum. The Science museum was fun, and I loved the life size dinosaur and the animal exhibits on the ground floor including the dozens of pull-out drawers containing shells, bones, insects, etc. It is a shame part of the lower level was closed for repairs, but what can you do? We tried many of the buttons and exhibits but they either weren't plugged in or didn't work. That was a bit disappointing. We never even saw all of this museum, or much of the other museums included with admission. For $25 if you can see everything it is probably a good deal, but if you only want to go to part of it (or if you or your kid get tired or bored part way) it might not be such a good value.

We spent a very nice hour and a half strolling the grounds of the Storrowton Village Museum today…read more It's not a museum in the traditional sense, but rather a reconstructed village of 18th and 19th century buildings from Massachusetts and New Hampshire plopped down around a traditional town green. It reminded me a lot of what I remember seeing in Colonial Williamsburg or Old Sturbridge Village. The green has a big gazebo, and we saw a family taking graduation pictures there. The gazebo is also a popular location for wedding photos. It's located on the grounds of Eastern States Exposition, sort of on the fringe of the Big E. The buildings around the town green have an interesting history- they were all purchased, disassembled, transported, and then rebuilt on site. A sign in front of each building has a QR code so you can read up on its history. Here are some of the buildings we saw - Phillips House - Built in 1767 in Taunton, Massachusetts with hand-hewn oak sills and beams, hand-forged nails, and hand-shaped bricks. This is the village's administrative office and gift shop. Union Meeting House - Built in 1834 in Salisbury, New Hampshire. Religious services were held here, so you'll see pews of unpainted pine, a choir gallery, and a white paneled pulpit. A gorgeous steeple with a clock and bell were added during the rebuild. The building can be rented out for weddings. North Center School - Built around 1810 in Whately Massachusetts as a one room schoolhouse. The brick building has blackboards on all four walls. The museum hosts quite a bit of their educational youth programs here. Clark Blacksmith Shop - Built out of granite around 1850 in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. It was deconstructed stone by stone for its move to Massachusetts. Today it serves as a classroom for a blacksmith program and is a popular tourist attraction during the Big E where folks can see the blacksmiths put their forge and bellows in action. Potter Mansion -You'd expect any building named a mansion to be impressive, but before I get to describing the building, let me say or word or two abut the gent who lived there. Captain John Potter was an officer in the Revolutionary War and he built the house for his fifteen children from two wives. Now THAT'S impressive. The mansion was built in 1776 in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, and construction lasted ten years. You'll see all sorts of ornamental woodworking, a parlor, a dining room, and a kitchen with an oversized hearth, brick bake oven, and pine cabinetry. Gilbert Farmstead - Quiz time! Ever hear of anyone with the first name of "Peletiah"? Yeah, I thought not. Anyway, Pell Gilbert and his brother Levi built the farmhouse in 1794 in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. It has some very interesting construction features, like hand-hewn timbers, wrought iron hardware and nails, wide wood plank floorboards, a granite sink, raised panel trim, and a scalloped corner cabinet in the parlor. Eddy Law Office- Built in 1810 in Middleboro, Massachusetts. It's a small professional office building typical of the style of the day -one or two rooms. The building has a distinctive curved roof. The Tavern - Built around 1789 in Prescott, Massachusetts and originally known as the Atkinson Tavern. Here's a cool piece of trivia about Prescott - it doesn't exist today! Prescott and three neighboring towns were claimed by the Commonwealth of MA to be flooded and became the Quabbin Reservoir. In its hay day, the tavern hosted dances and town meetings upstairs and a store and taproom downstairs. Today, the building is the home of the Storrowton Tavern and traditional New England. If you go there for dinner, check out the granite hitching posts outside. The museum offers a heaping portion of history, education, photo ops, and plain old coolness.

Springfield, MA - the Springfield Museums complex is five museums arranged around a courtyard…read moreanchoring the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden, with the history museum conveniently located across the street. One admission gets you into all five: 1. The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum 2. Springfield Science Museum 3. Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts 4. Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History 5. George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum (closed for renovations at this time) Dr. Seuss Museum is the newest addition and an absolute delight - colorful, immersive, and photo-ready. The first floor is pure chaotic kid energy, like a Dr. Seuss book come to life; the second floor is more grown up, featuring a recreation of Springfield native Theodor Geisel's (aka Dr. Seuss) studio and living room, plus exhibits on his life. My child refused to leave. Thankfully, the museum is equipped with benches and seats in every room, as it is incontrovertible law that children's play areas can never have too many resting places for parents. I eventually pried my child away and ushered him to the science & natural history museum, which was also a hit. Highlights included a snowboarding video game and a 360° photo capture that spits out a digital image you can email to yourself as a souvenir. There's also a dinosaur hall, African hall, planetarium, animal dioramas, small aquariums, and a nice gift shop. Again, kid did not want to leave. Grandpa is into history so toured the Museum of Springfield History on his own. Springfield was once a manufacturing powerhouse: automobiles, firearms, and home of the Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company. Fittingly, the museum has an automobile gallery, the world's largest collection of Indian cycles and memorabilia, and the world's largest collection of Smith & Wesson guns among its 1,600+ firearms. Grandpa learned a lot about local history and the Connecticut River Valley. I only got a quick walk-through of the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, and regret not having more time to linger over the intricate and absolutely exquisite "Book of Wonder"exhibit by Donna Castellanos. The Smith Art Museum, a Victorian-era single-collector museum, is currently closed for renovation, which was fine, as by that point we'd run out of time and energy anyway. Even the on-site restaurant, Blake House Café, was excellent, serving food from Smoked, a local BBQ joint. There was something for everyone in the family (kids, arts, history, and science) and it's good bang for your buck. The museums are compact enough to hit all five in one day if you keep moving, but you're better off slowing down and focusing on two or three.

Springfield Museums has a sculpture garden and five museums on-site. You can visit all 5 with one…read moreticket. There is a parking lot; it was packed on a weekday but I was able to find a spot. First, we stopped at the Dr. Seuss building. It's an interactive museum perfect for toddlers and young kids. We spent about 45 minutes in there. Then the Springfield Science Museum, it had an aquarium, animals, and dinosaurs. The other buildings focuses on art and history. Yes, you could spend a whole day there. We stopped by the gift shop before we left. I recommend a visit to this museum!

As a WNBA fan, and lifelong basketball fan, I was blown away by the level of respect the Hall of…read moreFame gives to women athletes. Coming in, I was expecting for the building to focus on predominantly male athletes and get some tidbits of the women's game here and there. Because that's usually how it goes. Instead, I got a pretty large selection of content. In the historical section, which I was most interested in, there were so many artifacts from the women's teams, I could have spent hours there alone. The games and videos and promotional material all highlighted women beyond tokenism too. In most cases, for every highlight of a man, there was a highlight of a woman. Even the little things like the disposable inserts of the frames they were selling at the gift shop- had several women incorporated. And the gift shop wasn't segregated with a WNBA corner like every other basketball store I've ever been in, it was dispersed throughout the store. There was less W merch, but there was still a more meaningful selection than usual. I'd love to see an exhibition for a female player soon the way they have an exhibition for Steph rn. And there was great disability representation. The building itself is accessible with an elevator, spacious aisles, captions on all videos, large bathrooms with the more than one accessible stall. The museum is so impressively interactive, too. I would come back again and again. There are two main floors of content and a third bottom floor that is a basketball court. As a slow museum reader it took me 3 hours to get through. There is a Subway and a nicer tavern restaurant right in the building on either entrance. There is a Pizzeria UNO's in the same plaza as well.

As a basketball fan, stepping into the history of the sport I love was an amazing experience. From…read morethe legendary players and unforgettable moments to the incredible memorabilia, every exhibit reminded me why I fell in love with basketball. It was also really cool to see kids playing in a tournament on the court inside the museum. Watching the next generation enjoy the game in a place that honors basketball's greatest legends made the experience even more special. My only disappointment was the gift shop. I was expecting a much bigger selection of merchandise, especially for a place that celebrates the game's greatest players and moments. I left wishing there were more unique items to choose from. Overall, it's a must-visit for any basketball fan.

The afternoon's office on the road after spending the morning in East Granby's library. I was here…read morein a quiet spot for about three hours. This is a beautiful library with lots of space, many stacks of books and DVDs and CDs. Plenty of tables for quiet study and quiet work. I managed to have a couple of Zoom meetings and I sent a ton of emails. Fabulous stuff. Definitely take the time to visit the art gallery in the front of the library. Lovely works! [Review 18414 overall - 1134 in Massachusetts - 1936 of 2022.]

Library itself is fine, but I swear they never have any books I want to read on shelf or even at…read morethe athenaeum at all. I check the website to see if they have any books I've been wanting to read but almost all of them are only available at OTHER libraries. I mean having all copies of a certain book be checked out is one thing, but they seriously need to expand their catalogue. It's not like I'm looking for some obscure, unknown book either, they just don't have books apparently.

This museum is across the street from Springfield museum, it is the biggest and baddest among the 5…read moreof them. The museum highlights so much about Springfield and Massachusetts' history, achievements, technological and industrial contributions. First floor of the museum has lot of movies and TV series posters and frames that were based of from Springfield. There was a giant statue of Black Panther in honor of costume designer of the movie who's from Springfield. There's also giant section of Hasbro games, highlighting the themes of some of their most popular games. Fun area for kids. Then there are section for automotive innovations, industrial age, Rolls Royce cars and many of Springfield's great success stories. Second floor has a huge area dedicated to contributions in aviation, motorcycles (Indian and Harley Davidson), the civil war, Abraham Lincoln and John Brown's contribution to saving the Union. I learned so much about Springfield and MA just by exploring the museum. To me it was the best one, as also suggested by one of the museum employees. Don't miss this one if you are visiting Springfield Museums.

This Springfield History museum is part of the Springfield Museums complex and was our last stop of…read moreour 3 museum visit. It's small but enjoyable. My daughter would have lived in the Hasbro exhibit if I let her. Lots of antique cars and planes and the top floor gets into the Springfield related history of it all. Worth a visit while you're in the area. Also, I visited when we're still in COVID-19 pandemic and masks are optional at this museum but required at the museums with more kid attendees: Dr. Seuss and parts of the Science Museum