THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412110071
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Throughout the day, sobs and wails of kids broke the happy sounds that permeated the highly touted new Children's Museum of Virginia, which opened to the public on Saturday.
But that wailing was like music to museum staffers. The youngsters were crying because they didn't want to leave.
The $2.5 million hands-on museum attracted 725 people despite the foggy, soggy weather.
Comments from many of the children ranged from ``Wow!'' to ``Yeah'' to ``Cool.''
``There's nothing but light and joy in here,'' former U.S. Sen. William B. Spong said. Spong is chairman of the Portsmouth Museums Foundation, which raised $1.3 million in private donations to match the city's investment in the 27,000 square-foot museum housed in a former Leggett department store building.
The people came from all around for opening day.
Pamela Haynes of Newport News brought her own four youngsters and two of the neighbor's children. They ranged in age from 1 to 8 and each found a special place to play.
One-year-old Quincy Haynes would not be deterred from climbing up and down a rope ladder.
``We'd never been to something like this, so I thought we'd come today,'' his mother said. ``I'm glad we did. Look at Quincy. He likes it.''
For Lucy Johnson, bringing her children - Courtney, 6, and Talbott, 3 - to the new museum was a continuation of a ``favorite thing to do on rainy Saturdays.''
``We came to the old museum every rainy Saturday,'' the Portsmouth mother said.
The difference: the old museum has three exhibits compared to the new museum's 60 exhibits, including a 60-seat state-of-the-art planetarium.
Mixed in with many new high-tech displays that fascinated children and their parents were new versions of two old exhibits: Bubbles, a series of mechanisms for blowing plain old soap-and-water bubbles, and The City, a collection of real-life objects such as a police motorcycle and a firetruck. They probably were the busiest places in the museum. One little girl told her father she wanted a motorcycle for Christmas.
``The children approve of it,'' Museums Director Betty Burnell said. ``It's wonderful to see them having so much fun.''
``This is a Christmas present from Portsmouth to all the children of Hampton Roads, the Commonwealth and beyond,'' Mayor Gloria O. Webb said in a brief formal opening ceremony.
``It's a dream come true,'' she added.
The museum, which will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays through Thursdays and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, was started in 1980 in the Portsmouth Public Library basement by members of the Portsmouth Service League and became the fourth part of the city's museum system in 1982.
Only the first floor of the new building was opened Saturday. The foundation is raising money to finish the second floor, which will house the Lancaster Collection, a million-dollar gift of miniature trains and antique toys announced two weeks ago by A.J. ``Junie'' Lancaster. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MARTIN SMITH RODDEN/Staff
Eight-year-old Francesca Ramos of Portsmouth works on the ``You and
Me'' exhibit at the Children's Museum of Virginia. Its grand opening
Saturday attracted 725 visitors.
Photo
MARTIN SMITH RODDEN/Staff
John Fay of Portsmouth tries out a rock-climbing wall at the new
hands-on Children's Museum of Virginia, which opened Saturday.
by CNB