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Things to Find

Get lost in twists, turns, corners and caverns.

City Museum is filled with weirdly wonderful spaces to explore. With a rooftop and four floors full of installations, attractions, collections and more, there’s almost too much to see and do. Did we mention we sell Memberships?

Get to know some of our favorites and plan a visit to experience them yourself.

Need a Little Guidance?

Let us show you around. We offer guided tours full of the weirdly wonderful stories behind City Museum.

Determined to find a better use for the roof than a dog park and chicken roost, City Museum’s founder, Bob Cassilly, and his crew added fountains and giant slides to reunite visitors with the Big Eli Ferris Wheel, the bus and the praying mantis that call the roof home. The rooftop is open nearly year-round (weather and other factors permitting) and access is free to our Gold Member Pass holders and just an additional $8 add-on to the price of a general admission ticket.

3,000

Pounds of Praying Mantis

1

STL Science Center Planetarium Dome

1

Out-of-Commission Bus

City Museum is built around the old spiral chutes of the shoe warehouse it once was. Inspired by the utility of gravity, the artists have not missed the opportunity to include a slide in nearly every installation. 

7

Toddler Town Slides

3

Rooftop Slides

1

5-Story Spiral Slide

30+

Total Slides

Multi-level slides

Purportedly man-made chambers wind through the heart of the City Museum past sculptures of mythical creatures and a 1925 Wurlitzer organ. Climb to the top and take a multi-story spiral slide down. But watch out for the Spider Cave on your way up.

Initially planted only on the first floor, giant tree trunks and slides began to spread up through the second and third floors and burrowed into tunnels underneath the museum. Third Floor Treehouse spillage can be found near the spider net.

Located in the City Circus on the 3rd floor, run away and join the circus without leaving City Museum! Circus Harmony is a non-profit circus organization using juggling, acrobatics, magic and more to motivate social change. Stop in the circus ring on the third floor to see a free show or take a class.

Wasn’t having more fun and getting in shape some of what you decided for the New Year? You’ve always wanted to try circus and now you can and should! You’ve gotta start somewhere and sometime. Why not now?

Register NOW for Summer classes with Circus Harmony at City Museum to join this amazing activity for ages 3 to adult. Classes include basic circus arts, aerials, juggling, unicycling, wire-walking, and tumbling.

Register here:

https://circusharmony.org/classes/sign-up-for-classes/

586

Shows performed last year

83

83 Classes and workshops conducted last year

An outdoor sculpture of flotsam and repurposed technology including climbers, airplanes, castles, bridges, ball pits and fire engines.

2

Sabreliner 40 Aircraft Fuselages

4

Foot-Story Wrought-Iron Slinky

1

Rocket Ship

Built during a less litigious time, this onetime skate park is now a collection of slides and ramps built around the World’s Largest Working Pencil.

Built by artist Ashrita Furman, the pencil was installed in Skateless Park after an extended discussion among members of the Cassilly crew about what to do with it.

76

Feet Long 

No. 2

Pencil

21k+

Pounds of Pencil

4,000

Pounds of Graphite

City Museum is home to endless collections, including George Diehl’s collection of taxidermy butterflies, moths and insects; a museum full of everyday items that were found in outhouses (none of them are what you would expect); thousands of art slides from The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and of course, historic architectural remnants from cities near and far. 

1,000s

Of Things Found in Outhouses 

2nd Largest

Collection of Louis Sullivan Architecture

Vintage 1940 “Big Eli” Ferris wheel was purchased from a traveling circus and now provides some of the best views in the City.

Art City is open Thursday-Sundays 10 am – 4 pm. Check out our calendar for activities! Art City staff has a variety of projects for you to do: cut and fold dragons and dinos, sculpt a little brother, paint a house or make a mosaic.

Smaller versions of slides and climbers give families a place made just for our visitors age 6 and under. There is a nursing room on the east wall.

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