Reaction! City Museum

Brigitte Wittmer
5 min readJul 10, 2021

Much of the City Museum is a playful, cacophony of spaces. Some of it clearly has a theme, some of it does not. The first floor is a sea of creatures, both real and imagined. Open tanks of fish line a mosaic walkway of dolphins and octopi that shimmer like the ocean.

Beside and above you are tunnels of wood and rebar, the Treehouse, that’s big enough for those willing to duck, crawl, and dodge the smallest people zipping through.

Then there’s a couple exhibits on Louis Sullivan, an architect, who really loved terra cotta. You can view pieces and pieces of terra cotta from buildings across the midwest, including St Louis, Indiana, and Chicago.

But the best part is the playfulness, randomness, and recklessness you are allowed throughout the building.

Above the entryway, there is a lone sign hanging from the ceiling, roughly pointing you to what you may want to see but also reminding you there are “NO MAPS” (although, there is one being painted on the walls upstairs).

I LOVED that there were no hand-held maps. I just had to kind of figure it out as I go and that led to moments of awe when I wound up in the organ room or at the bottom of a cave that may have been a little less impactful had I known what I was walking into.

organ, spiral stairs and spiral slide!

The caves were terrifying simply because I couldn’t always see where I was stepping and kept thinking how much it would suck to sprain my ankle on vacation. But the darkness was a welcome reprieve from the 90-degree, summer, St Louis weather looming outside.

After a while getting lost inside, I braved the outdoors and to my surprise, found adults and kids alike scaling an immense structure with castles, slides, airplanes, and a firetruck at Monstro City.

A fun and awkward part of the entire museum is that adults are not prevented from experiencing anything (except for Toddler Town). What this means is groups of older kids are free to roam and families of all ages can experience Monstro City together. What it meant for me was adventure-at-your-own-risk, yes-you-are-too-big-for-this excitement and claustrophobia. There were many tunnels that I had no business going through, but I did it anyway! More than once, toddlers tried to skip me in line, and while I let it happen though it peeved me, eventually their parents would be like “Michaaaaaeeelllll,” and they’d GTFO.

I don’t know anything about structural engineering but surely Monstro City is a marvel. I climbed several bouncy, metal tunnels. One of which was this:

What you can’t quite tell from this picture is that there are 6 stories below, and this metal tube is connected at just 3 points: entrance, exit, and that hook in the middle on a line from the building to a post in the parking lot.

For me, this was the thing that made me wonder why I didn’t have to sign a liability waiver upon entrance. Just watching a grown man descend and get caught in a straddle, his foot stuck in the metal, made me wonder who had injured themselves and how much I hope no one ever sues the museum to bankruptcy. But these are thoughts for adults, not folks rolling around inside an adventure park!!!!!

If you go to the City Museum, don’t forget to purchase rooftop access! I didn’t get it first thing and then had to wait 1.5 hrs to go up the elevators because it was timed entry. Pro tip — there are other elevators and stairwells you can use to climb to the top, and I didn’t see anyone checking those areas for your ticket time! Go beat the line!!

Once up top, it was worth the wait. It was the bookend to a remarkable extravaganza. Board a school bus teetering on the edge of the roof. Slide (or skid) down two slides. Roll around in some very comfortable, 3D printed-looking chairs. Ride around a ferris wheel left by some circus performers some time ago. Worship the praying mantis and you will be granted one wish! (just kidding)

Did I mention I spent 5 hours here?? Ok I could’ve finished in 3.5 if it weren’t for the rooftop wait buuuut wow! I have never cared to spend more than 2 hours (really 1) at any museum. But this is far from a typical museum.

Locate the City Museum on Google Maps and you will find this description: “offbeat discovery center and playground.” This is a great way to think about it. You have the pleasure of finding things for yourself (remember, no maps) and climbing, touching, wrestling, sitting on anything you find, with few exceptions.

City Museum is the physical manifestation of the phrase “why not?!?!!!??” And if you are a bored 27 year-old, a grandma watching 4 younguns, a summer camp desperately looking to entertain your kids, or a family looking for a vacation, City Museum could be just the escape you need.

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Brigitte Wittmer

Researcher and explorer of immersive entertainment. Profile pic: Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return