The Children’s Museum of Illinois is a wonderful alternative to video games, televisions, and play rooms at fast food joints. You can’t buy french fries there, but two floors of hands-on, interactive fun far outweigh the carb deficiency.

Ten permanent exhibits and various temporary projects draw 60,000 visitors to the museum annually. Kids touch, listen, yell, laugh, jump, and learn — hopefully, with their parents, says Executive Director Melinda Shaw.

With adults as clerks, children mail pretend letters, make money withdrawals, and shop in the Johnston Supermarket/Bank/Post Office exhibit. Child-size grocery carts, check-out registers, and play money encourage “real-life” play.

Making giant bubbles, painting on Plexiglass, and maneuvering toys through a water maze are perennial favorites. Upstairs play stations include following the energy trail from coal mine to household appliances, piloting an airplane, and building with giant blocks.

The museum’s centerpiece is “Luckey’s Climber,” where children climb a two-story spiral of platforms, encased in safety net.

“Get sixty kids on it with only one way up or down, and it becomes a problem-solving exercise,” says Shaw. “They always figure it out.”

Rooms are available for private birthday parties and meetings, and workshops are frequently scheduled.

Don’t expect to drop off the kids and go shopping. Adult supervision is required, and adult involvement is encouraged. One sign proclaims: “Where children play to learn and adults learn to play.”

The Children’s Museum of Illinois is located at 55 South Country Club Road; 217-423-KIDS. Hours: Tuesday-Friday: 9:30 a.m. to-4:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.

“It’s so diverse,” says Ed Walker, Birks Museum director, “and you get little snapshots of different areas of antiques.”

The Birks, more properly called the Millikin University Museum, began in 1980 with the donation of museum-quality porcelain, glass, and china by Florence and Jenna Birks.

Today, the museum contains items from the James Millikin estate and 700 paperweights, the second largest collection in the state. Among the 3,000 items, be sure to see a Buddha head, dating to 1684; a Belleek mirror made for Queen Victoria; three display cases of exquisite Fairyland porcelain; and a life mask of a beardless Abraham Lincoln from 1864.

The museum was once the original reading room of the Gorin Library, and its exposed oak timber in Gothic Revival and 32-foot ceilings are themselves worth the trip.

Located in Gorin Hall on the Millikin campus, Birks Museum is open daily from 1-4 p.m. Groups of ten or more can arrange special showings. Parking is available in front of Gorin Hall. Admission is free. Call 217-424-6228.

The “Lincoln Log Courthouse” is a must-see at the Macon County Historical Society Museum. Located behind the museum, the two-story structure was new when Thomas Lincoln’s family trudged into Decatur in 1830. At 6’2", Lincoln would have had to be careful not to bump his head on the second floor supports when he later tried three cases there.

John McClarey’s statue, “Vision for a Greater Illinois,” stands in front of the courthouse. Dedicated last September, it depicts thirty-year-old Abraham Lincoln holding an Illinois map.

The grounds also showcase a one-room schoolhouse, log cabin, replica of Mueller’s gun shop, the Palmer Depot, and the N & W Caboose.

Inside, the museum’s bottom floor splits into two displays of life-sized dioramas, spanning Indian life on the prairie to the Victorian era. Note the length — or lack of it — of an early pioneer’s double bed. Don’t miss the wooden Indian, taken from Michl’s Cigar Store in 1858. A reference room displays a room-size mural from Decatur High School and a statue of Abraham Lincoln from Lincoln Elementary School.

The Macon County Historical Society began in 1916 and relocated to 5580 N. Fork Road in 1979.

The museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 4 p.m., and is closed Saturday-Monday. Admission is free, and donations are accepted. Call 217-422-4949.

Located at Scovill Zoo, the Hieronymus Mueller Museum chronicles the accomplishments of the “Unsung Genius of Decatur.”

A roomful of display cases tracks the German immigrant from his early gun shop to the world’s second largest brass foundry. Mueller’s inventions — over 500 patents in all — impacted faucets, toilets, sinks, and shower heads. They improved plumbing, the fire hydrant, the sterile soda fountain, and roller skates.

Interested in early automobiles, Mueller incorporated variable speed transmission, water-cooled radiators, and reverse and three forward gears to his variation of the Benz car. In 1895, the Mueller Benz car won the country’s first unofficial car race. The seventh of eight cars the Muellers manufactured is on display. Be sure to see an example of early water pipes, too.

According to Museum Curator Patricia Cross, about 700 people visit the museum annually. Admission is $1 for adults and 50 cents for children. Hours are 1 to 4 p.m., Friday through Sunday. Call 217-423-6161.

Browsing Ahead . . .

• Check the Children’s Museum’s schedule for upcoming Halloween and Thanksgiving activities. December’s breakfast with Santa and the Gingerbread House Workshop require reservations. “Song of Korea,” an interactive exhibit involving language, dress, and music arrives in March. The Children’s Museum was one of only ten museums nationwide chosen to display the exhibit, which was created by the Austin Children’s Museum.
• Birks Museum will house about 100 pieces of the Richard Bock Collection from Greenville College beginning in November. Bock, a nationally recognized sculptor, is well known for his decade-long association with Frank Lloyd Wright. The collection will be on display until March.
• The Hieronymus Mueller Museum locates to new quarters on West Eldorado in spring 2005.
  

This article originally appeared in the October / November 2004 issue of Decatur Magazine.
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