Although the name suggests otherwise, the City Museum is not a typical museum. It offers a variety of attractions that appeal to a wide range of ages and is helping to breathe new life into the Washington district of St. Louis, Missouri. 

Before entering the Museum, visitors gaze up in wonder at the colossal structure before them: the MonstroCity. The MonstroCity is an outdoor playground complete with tunnels, slides, a ball pit and more stacked on top of each other in an intricate design. This work of art is most spectacular when brought to life by the movement and laughter of the people exploring its great heights.

All of the materials used on the MonstroCity come from various buildings around St. Louis that have been welded together. This play haven also boasts two abandoned planes that were damaged in the ’93 flood of the Missouri River and have been incorporated as part of the structure.

The City Museum is the creation of artist and entrepreneur Bob Cassilly. It took Cassilly, the co-owner and artistic director, three years to make his vision a reality before its doors were opened in 1997.

Today, the City Museum attracts about 3,500 visitors on an average Friday, ranging from five-year-olds to young professionals to grandparents. Visitors come to enjoy the attractions within the museum, including playgrounds for all ages, an aquarium, a funhouse, a shoelace factory, an art studio and circus performances.

  There is no red tape at the City Museum. In fact, everything can be crawled on. The Museum was designed so that it is accessible to everyone. Cassilly, who is 6 feet 5 inches tall, can crawl through every hole, tunnel and slide in the building.

Young children are often seen exploring the Museum’s caverns or playing in the child-sized skate park. However, one of the audiences that the Museum is most excited to connect with again is the college-aged young professional crowd that is being attracted to the newly renovated areas of the city.

“A lot of people in their twenties don’t even know about [the Museum],” said Kara Wall, marketing assistant for the City Museum. “If they can find there is a cool, kinda chill, non-clubby place to go at night and still have fun and hang out with their friends. . . . It’s something you’ll remember. . . . The weekends won’t fade together.”

After 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, general admission lowers from $12 to $10. At this time the music is changed and lights are dimmed on the first floor to appeal to the older crowd and the Museum is open until 1 a.m. Old movies and short public service films are shown on the big screen outside. One night featured an old instructional video “How to Attack a Zombie” followed by “Night of the Living Dead.”

Beatnik Bob’s is located on the second floor of the Museum. Reminiscent of a funhouse, this room features pinball machines, tarot readings, the fortune teller machine seen in the Tom Hanks’ movie “Big” and the world’s largest pair of underwear hanging on the wall. This bohemian coffee house space provides an area to converse, grab a bite to eat, or come up for a drink.

Creativity is a key component to the intrigue and success of the City Museum. Nothing bought and used to build the Museum is actually new due to Cassilly’s focus on the environment and his vision of staying connected to the city’s urban roots.

Wall explained that the Museum utilizes recycled materials, contractors’ seconds, donations or parts salvaged from other areas. The Museum is constantly receiving donations. Items that they cannot find an immediate use for are stored on another floor until they decide what they would like to do with them, such as approximately 400 bowling balls waiting to be morphed into one of the Museum’s many creations.

The building that houses the City Museum was originally the International Shoe Company factory and warehouse. Much of the building’s original structure has been incorporated into the design of the renovated space. The main staircase, which was actually donated by the city hospital upon demolition of the building, is now lined with rollers from the original shoe factory’s conveyer system that have been painted and used as side railings.

Part of the original guts of the shoe warehouse where shoes would spiral down from the ceiling to be worked on has now been renovated into a five-story slide. The skylight that shines down on the area was taken from the Missouri History Museum. Upon sliding down this unique space, visitors can crawl down farther into the man-made caves that provide more opportunities for exploration.

Lizzie Klass worked as a summer intern with the City Museum and said she enjoys working at such a dynamic place. Klass said she appreciates the fact that everything is salvaged from the urban area.

“Working in the office I know [the materials used to build and add to the Museum] belong to a lot of the groups that are helping bring back St. Louis,” she said.

Being a private business owner, Cassilly and his group of artisans have the freedom to constantly change the museum and its exhibits. There is neither a set schedule nor a set budget for the Museum. Instead, the owners are free to add, expand and change the structure and features as they deem necessary at the time. This lack of restriction enables the owners to stay true to the idea of a city within a city that inspired the idea behind this St. Louis attraction. No matter a person’s interests or age, everyone can find something worth checking out at the City Museum.

Photos by Phil Jarrett