Steve Thurston (2021)
"I have a loud voice," said Karen Kowalski as she set up an arts project outside the Children's Museum at Saratoga Springs during a breezy Tuesday morning.
The building that houses the Children’s Museum at Saratoga Springs is for sale. The museum at 69 Caroline Street is asking $2.25 million for the property. It has been getting some interest, according to Gerard Wise, the listing agent from Roohan Realty. The property is zoned UR4, "urban residential."
Sarah Smith, the executive director of the museum said they have been planning a move to the Lincoln Baths, part of the Saratoga Spa State Park system, at 65 S. Broadway in Saratoga Springs.
The total move is expected to cost about $3 million, Smith said, and they are working privately to raise about $1.5 million before starting a public campaign for the rest. She said that will likely start next month.
“So, we weren’t just sitting here,” during the pandemic, Smith said in an interview yesterday. “We’ve already raised a fair amount.”
Money earned from the sale of the current location will be put toward the move into the new one.
The Lincoln Baths, she said, “That’ll be our permanent home.”
The new location is 12,000 feet plus a 4,000 square foot courtyard, compared to the current 8,000.
According to their website, the museum was founded in 1990 by community parents and educators, the Children’s Museum occupied donated space on Broadway in Saratoga Springs before renting space at 36 Phila Street. In November 2001 the Museum moved from the Phila Street location to 69 Caroline Street.
The Children’s Museum reopened to the public in April, with some COVID protocols. The plan is to stay open through the summer at the current location, begin the move this fall and fully reopen in the spring.
Children and their adults can visit the museum currently, but they are limiting access to 60 people instead of their normal 90. Each family is given a backpack with play food for the diner, money for the trolley and other items, Smith said, adding that all the items take a disinfection bath at the end of each family’s stay. She said she is happy to see people of all types and income levels returning to the museum.
With warmer weather, they are moving outdoors with walking trips planned to Bog Meadow Brook Nature Trail and Pitney Meadows Community Farm.
Karen Kowalski, a retired preschool teacher, was setting up a reading and art activity--kids will make butterflies--in the parking lot behind the building. It is the biggest group they have had since reopening, and the tables were spread apart on the lot on a breezy morning.
Asked if the kids would hear her, she responded, “I have a loud voice.”