Children’s Museum Finds Downtown Home Hands-On Museum For Kids Will Relocate To Former Rice Time Express Building At 110 N. Post Street Opening

The Children’s Museum of Spokane has found a new home - this time in the downtown shopping district.

Organizers say they’ve found a safe, convenient location for the museum in a building that has housed a hair salon, a furrier and, most recently, Rice Time Express restaurant.

By mid-spring, kids will be lined up for the grand opening of the museum at 110 N. Post, said executive director Mary Brandt.

“It’s a great building with a lot of charm and we’re taking the whole building,” said Brandt.

Plans to put the museum in a West First Avenue building were scrapped this summer after organizers found out a dozen sex offenders lived nearby.

“It is an all-around stronger location for the museum,” Brandt said, referring to the new site.

“It’s closer to the hub of what’s happening in downtown.”

Brandt refused to say how much rent the museum has agreed to pay.

The Paul G. Allen Charitable Foundation recently donated $75,000 to the effort.

The hands-on museum made a four-month debut last year at a temporary site at 222 N. Post.

About 10,000 children visited the exhibits, which ranged from a tornado generator to a replica of a Greek village.

When the museum reopens next spring, kids will find a new music section with instruments they can play.

Another new area, called Playscape, will be designed for children up to 5 years old. They’ll play in a sand table and climb in a treehouse. Babies will crawl through a “tactile stimulation” area covered with mirrors, carpet, fur and other materials.

Soon organizers will meet with architects and make plans for minor renovations in the two-story, 9,000-square-foot building.

A few walls will be moved and the kitchen will be transformed into a “water room,” featuring exhibits involving water.

Museum board members looked at eight other empty buildings before unanimously settling on this one, said Carole Vanderwilde, marketing chairwoman.

“There wasn’t one person who went through it who didn’t say, ‘Let’s do it,”’ she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map: New site of Children’s Museum (110 N. Post)

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: OPENING The Children’s Museum of Spokane will reopen next spring.