The Detroit Historical Museum has just reopened after a $12 million dollar renovation and it is now free, along with the Detroit Institute of Arts. How many cities can boast free museums? I have always loved this museum because it is small although not so small that you can't spend two hours there. Fifteen thousand people visited the museum last weekend when it was open around the clock. Exhibits include a lot of information about fur-trading, the French in the US, music, cars, civil rights, the assembly line, dolls, trains, and the basement still boasts the streets of old Detroit. I can't wait to see what's new.
Does your city have a historical museum? I know New York does because I love it. And, of course, D.C. has the Smithsonian.On of my favorite historical museums was in Amsterdam.How different these buildings are but what's inside has similarities.
24 comments:
Very good baseball team. Corrupt government.
Cities with free museums:
D.C.
London
Jeff M.
London, of course, has historical museums. We went to the City of London museum last time we were there. And York has the Castle Museum with what sounds like what you described - the old cobblestone streets with shops, etc. the way they used to be.
It's been a long time since we were there but there is a great museum in Munich that is like the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, as well as having historical exhibits (the Deutsches Museum).
Jeff M.
Buffalo has a historical museum, a couple good art museums, and a science museum. The problem, during this recession, has been to find funding for them.
I was trying to think of the Castle Museum, Jeff.
The museums here struggled until the surrounding counties passed a millage to bail them out for a while.
Many cities have no free museums--like Paris.
Yeah, York is a nice compact city with several worthwhile places to see, including the Minster of course and the Jorvik Viking Centre. They have a really good Indian restaurant we really like and they used to have some good secondhand bookstores. I like it a lot.
Jeff M.
I'm reading a novel called the DEvil's workshop by Steven Cannell and there are terrorists in it getting ready to attack Detroit as being the "capitol" of certain evils in the country. :)
Museums in my local area all cost, though they sometimes have one free day a month (which we usually take advantage of).
We have a very nice visitor center here in Biloxi which has a small museum component that's very nice.
What makes me sad is that if a building is nice around here, it's usually a museum, college or church. Such poverty here, and worse in New Orleans.
Wow. Attacking Detroit is so over. It would be hard to find anything other than the Renaissance Center to attack.
That is becoming more common here too, Fleur.
Everyone who visited us in England got a trip to York. We could never get enough of it.
I'm pleased to report that my little adopted town of St Marys, Ontario (pop. 6,600) has a freeish (admission by donation) historical museum.
The town's also the home of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame - but that'll cost ya all of $7.50.
Been to the Hall of Fame. Wish I had known about the other museum.
Good things about Detroit:
- It has spunk
- It has music through the good times and the bad
- It has Patti
- I have never been mugged or knifed there
Me too, Jerry! Of course, the only place in Detroit I've been is the airport, which was not fun...
;)
Jeff M.
Have you been here, Jerry? And thanks!
On the third Thursday of each month the museums of Tacoma are free. I keep meaning to go but either I forget or I have to babysit.
Babysitting is better.
Sadly, I've only driven through Detroit on college breaks, going from Nebraska to Massachusetts via Canada, and back. So many great cities in this country that I have not seen.
Something good about Detroit? It's not Baltimore. (A joke from THE WIRE.)
Patti-- have you ever been to the Michigan History Museum in Lansing? Also free! We have some local little museums around me that are also free.
Detroit is no Baltimore. I have been there and sadly, Detroit is in worse shape.
I have never really been to Lansing, except the Lugnut Stadium. Strange, I guess.
Patti, I'd love to take this educational trip through the Detroit Historical Museum. Online is the second best option. I didn't know it was so close to the Canadian border. All I know about Detroit is that it's called Motor City and that Stevie Wonder hails from your part of the world.
Detroit is actually north of Windsor Canada. It is the birthplace of the assembly line and lots of other things. Right now it is in great physical distress though. You can fit the city of Paris in the empty lots of Detroit.
Crazy as it sounds, The Canal Museum in Easton, PA, was actually more entertaining than the Crayola Factory Museum in the same building. The Canal Museum was on the third floor.
I don't think I have ever been in Easton.
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