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Chip Curley | all galleries >> Galleries >> Nashville Tennessee 1950 Photos > Nashville Children's Museum
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Nashville Children's Museum


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wayne elliott 15-Mar-2020 18:44
These photos do bring back many memories of growing up in Nashville. I am confused, though, in my old age about the original Lindsay Hall versus the new Hall. The photos from the Civil War show the building as having three stories, but the photos of what was the Children's Museum which people tell me was Lindsay Hall only has two storries. Can anyone out there clear this puzzle up for me? I am planning a trip back home in May to Nashville - haven't been home since 1966.
Guest 30-Jan-2017 03:19
My Dad and Mom met for the first time on the steps outside the front of the museum in the early 1940s. He was a soldier getting ready to go to war and she was an 11th grader at Howard. They were married after he was injured and they raised a family of 6 children. Thanks for the memories.
Guest 30-Jan-2017 03:14
Michael Martin 24-Sep-2012 19:26
I was born in 1950, at Vanderbilt Hospital, an while I have wonderful memories of Nashville and growing up in West Nashville the Children's Museum is a standout from my past. Sunday visits there with mom and dad, school trips, and later when they added the children's theatre more trips from school. Saw the Adventures of Tom Sawyer there, my first live play that was not on the Cockrill Elementary School Stage.

I took art classes in the summer there as a child, learned to do sand castings, drawing, and painting. We got to go anywhere in the museum to pick subjects to draw. I loved the dioramas of wild-life. The mother polar bear with her cubs on the ice with a bloody fish for lunch; the forest scene of the black bears in the smokies (trying to find all of the little insects and frogs and birds scattered through the scene; and the marine creatures in the coral reef depicted in the same room; as well as animals of the African plains. Then of course the live critters in the animal room; snakes, turtles, frogs, lizards, alligators, and talking birds. It was truly a wonderland.

And lastly, the Saturday Field Trips. One Saturday a month, children from all over the city would arrive with hiking clothes on, with bags and jars for collecting critters in the woods, bringing with us a canteen of water, a bag lunch with our name on it, sometimes a camera, and lots of curiosity for the day. Volunteer guides, often near senior citizens, would lead small groups of children on paths through farms, and woodlands around the county each month when the weather was good, the guides identifying the trees, flowers, animals, and insects we would see as we went through the woods. The highlight of the day was ending up at a stream where we could collect crawdads, tadpoles, small fish, and other strange wiggling things to bring back home to the delight of our mothers. Later when I joined the Boy Scouts I was already at home stomping around in the woods, the Children's Museum had a lasting impact on my life and I was so sad to see it go. It's replacement does not have the charm of the old, and does not quite excite the imagination that the old one did. Such a lost treasure for the generations that followed.
Robert E. 11-Mar-2012 18:16
I got to visit the Museum on a school field trip in 1971, I do remember some of the exhibits, but the one that stood out for me was the "O" scale model railroad. I was bitten with the model railroad bug that day and I have been an "O" scale modeler ever since. I'm very sorry to hear that the place shut down, I believe I enjoyed that Museum as much if not more than I have the Smithsonian. Does anyone know what happened to the Model Railroad? Robert E.
Bob S. 04-Aug-2011 01:45
I was born in 1950. Our elementary school class would take at least one field trip to the museum each year. It was a special event for sure. I went to Robertson Academy for elementary school from 1958-1963. Of course I remember the shrunken heads, so creepy. The rooms with live animals, like turtles, and I think an alligator. the trains were always special. I remember that one time we found an injured red tailed hawk. I captured him with the help of a neighbor kid, and after we put iodine on his wound (he had been shot in the wing)and my dad had been injured by his talons, we called the museum. They took him in and nursed him back to health, and turned him loose to the wild. The museum was known for that kind of stuff. When the museum closed, the employees were trying to figure out what to do with all the stuff. A friend of my dad's worked there and remembered that I had been a civil war buff. he brought my dad a cannon ball that had been in the museum. Said that they had way too many to keep. I still have it.
Guest 18-Jan-2010 01:44
as a child growing up in the '50s we would go on field trips that the childrens museum planned about once a month....we always had to take a sack lunch and a note from our parents giving permission to go.....fossil hunts, birdwatching, fort negley...so much fun, ive never forgotten
Brenda 05-Jan-2010 01:01
I remember this museum was near where my sister lived and we used to walk there and pass time looking around and talking to a blackbird that sat over a alligator cage. I used to worry the poor thing to death trying to get it to talk. I also remember the petrified body that was there. It was small. Yes I loved the childrens museum and have fond memories of going there.This was maybe 1965-67.
Allyson 18-Nov-2009 05:35
I remember the shrunken heads, the miniature city of Nashville with the running train (and the drive-in movie theatre off in the distance), I remember the two-story "zoo" animal room (which was never attended by a docent) and the chicken wire (really) that caged in the live animals... and I remember the taxidermied animal displays of natural habitats (especially the polar bear). I remember the big-wheeled bikes, too, and I think I remember a doll house that mezmorized me. I remember my big brother won a door prize drawing there, and his prize was a speckled dove... a live speckled dove (aka pigeon). These are some of my fondest 1960s memories. This decade, I remembered of all those Nashville Children's Museum displays every time I went to the Howard School to register my car. I am allyjanegreen@comcast.net. Peace.
Guest 12-Oct-2009 21:00
By the way, we'll be turning 65 next year, so any memories you might have of the museum would be great to have. Feel free to contact me at cthompson@adventuresci.com. I'd love to speak with you.
Chris Thompson 12-Oct-2009 20:58
There is an old book called the Children's Museum of Nashville--the First 30 Years. I'm sure it's not in print anymore, but there are several copies of it at the Science Center. Feel free to contact me, and I can see what I can do to help you get the information you need.
Mary 12-Sep-2009 22:25
I spent many hours here as a child. I wish I could clearly remember the displays but that has been 40-50 years ago and of course I cannot. I can remember the room with the antique items like the old bicyle with the huge front wheel. I also remember the birds' eggs in their many colors and sizes. I wish there was a book about the old museum. My children have know many happy hours at Cumberland Museum and Adventure Science Center but I miss the old museum.
JDM 06-Jun-2008 21:55
This building brings back a lot of memories. It was my very favorite place to visit in 1968-69 when my family lived in Hermitage. I only got to visit twice but it shaped my destiny for many decades. I could never really understand why I was attracted to libraries, books, loved all history and antiques during high school in the late 70's, or why I became a treasure hunter in Europe in the 80's. I am now a traveling engineer, eager to always seek new adventures. While looking at Nashville as a place to retire in the near future, I came across this photo.... Now the mystery has been solved. Subconsciously, I was mesmerized beyond belief at all the cool things the beautiful people of Nashville and Tennessee had put in this museum to expand the minds of its children. I use to dream about being locked in it overnight just so I could touch everything and pretend it all was my personal toy chest, you see, because I had nothing, we barely got by. I still remember looking at the pewter toy soldiers, cannons, fossils, gem rocks, and hundreds of fascinating items, and wondering how I could earn 25 cents to buy just one for Christmas. But most of all, I was fascinated with the Gothic castle appearance of the building. I did not know then it was built about 1882 but I could feel it grandeur reaching out to me. I now know this old museum shaped my destiny and is what started the initial attraction for me to live many years in the castile region of Spain, seek out hidden treasures which I successfully found in great quantities using my trusty metal detector. I now have my own private museum. Nothing is for sale, someday I will give it all away. I now wonder, how many real life Indiana Jones,like me, was created from contact, with just this one, old museum? A picture of this place now resides among my collection of coins, cobs and relics because for me, it is a treasure greater than all others, a treasure of the heart from the great people of Nashville, Tn.