If it weren’t for Sputnik, the South Florida Science Museum might still be a patch of cabbage palms in the middle of Dreher Park in West Palm Beach.
The Russian satellite — mankind’s first trip beyond our atmosphere — touched off the space race with the U.S. in the late 1950s to see who could reach the moon first.
On a smaller scale, it galvanized the local Junior League in 1959 to begin a $100,000 campaign to build a center devoted to science.
“We have founding mothers instead of founding fathers,” said museum President and CEO Lew Crampton.
The Junior Museum opened Sept. 21, 1961, 50 years ago this month. The centerpiece was a replica of Pratt & Whitney’s RL10 rocket engine (the first to use liquid hydrogen fuel) that had yet to be launched.
With the rocket was a display of authentic Seminole artifacts, an Everglades agricultural history exhibit, a show of native birds and marine life, an exhibit dedicated to architect Addison Mizner and a kangaroo mascot named Joey.
“We had across-the-board support of the city and the community,” said Nancy Myers, a Junior League member 50 years ago and still a member of the museum’s board of directors.
A $107,000 planetarium opened three years later. “We decided we wanted an astronaut to name it after,” Myers said. NASA sent a youngish astronaut named Edwin Aldrin Jr., who hadn’t even been in space yet, to the dedication. “We never heard of this ‘Buzz’ Aldrin,” Myers said with a laugh.
The planetarium was better known than Aldrin — at least until the summer of 1969, when he was one of three Americans to walk on the moon.
The county made its own contribution to the museum in 1969 when road construction west of West Palm Beach unearthed a mastodon skeleton. “Suzie” is still part of the center’s exhibits.
The museum added another wing in 1970 to house an observatory, theater, classrooms and more exhibit space. The aquarium was added in 1983 and the planetarium and theater were renovated three years ago.
The museum has staged fascinating exhibits through the decades: poisonous frogs, a boy mummy named King Tut, hairy spiders the size of a man’s fist and an outdoor dinosaur exhibit that drew 200,000 visitors.
As Palm Beach County grew from 250,000 people to 1.3 million, the science museum tried to keep pace. Ambitious plans for a $40 million science center in Lake Lytal Park died a few years ago.
“Back in the beginning there were not as many people looking for dollars as there are now,” Myers said of the scramble for philanthropic donations.
The museum plans a groundbreaking next year on a $2 million project that will add 7,000 square feet of space, doubling the aquarium and adding permanent dinosaur and Everglades exhibits.
“We’re in the right place now, next door to the (Palm Beach) zoo and right next to I-95,” Crampton said. “We want to make common cause with the zoo to create an eco-park. That would attract 500,000 visitors a year.”
The museum drew 125,000 visitors last year, second in the country, based on visitors per square foot of museum space and expects to make a $50,000-60,000 profit, a $100,000 turnaround from last year.
“That’s pretty good for a place that doesn’t have a lot of curb appeal,” Crampton said. “Some of our exhibits are shopworn, but people still love it.”
The South Florida Science Museum will celebrate its semi-centennial anniversary with a Fabulous 50th Birthday Celebration Oct. 22 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is 50 percent off to see the traveling exhibit Robotics, science-fun craft, the aquarium and 50 hands-on exhibits. Food and activities are first come, first served.
The science museum is at 4801 Dreher Trail N. in West Palm Beach.
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