Downtown Springfield had a 10,000-square-foot children’s museum from 1996 to 2001, which closed from a lack of money and interest. Which raises a question: The proposed new on will succeed because…why? The SJ-R thinks it was because its predecessor failed because it opened before downtown became a popular tourist, dining and shopping destination. I wonder whether that isn’t backwards – that one of the reasons that downtown didn’t become a popular tourist, dining and shopping destination in the ‘90s because the children’s museum didn’t attract many visitors there.
This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2013.
