Discovery Place is a science and technology museum designed for all ages, located in Uptown, Charlotte, North Carolina. The facility’s exhibits and activities focus on hands-on experiences; it features a “Thinker Space” and labs, a two-story urban rain forest, aquariums, live animal exhibits, stages for demonstrations, space for traveling exhibits, and event space. Discovery Place Science also operates The Charlotte Observer IMAX Dome Theater, also referred to as an OMNIMAX theater. It is the largest IMAX Dome Theater in the Carolinas. The museum opened in 1981 and was renovated in 2010. The IMAX Dome was opened in 1991. The Charlotte Observer secured the theater-naming rights.
Rebranding
In 2016, on the organization’s 70th anniversary, the Discovery Place network of museums underwent rebranding for naming clarity. The Discovery Place moniker now refers to the non-profit network of museums as a whole. The Uptown Charlotte location: Discovery Place became Discovery Place Science. The Freedom Park location in Charlotte: Charlotte Nature Museum became Discovery Place Nature, and the facilities in Huntersville, North Carolina, and Rockingham, North Carolina, retained their names: Discovery Place Kids-Huntersville and Discovery Place Kids-Rockingham.
History
The museum traces its history to 1946 and the foundation of a small museum on Cecil Street, Charlotte, by Laura Owens, a schoolteacher. The popularity of this museum led to the foundation of the Children’s Nature Center adjacent to the new Freedom Park. This museum opened in 1951, focusing on bringing families and nature together. It further expanded in 1965 to include a planetarium. By the 1970s, it had been renamed the Charlotte Nature Museum. A1 Bed Bug Exterminator Charlotte
The museum has continued to grow with the expansion of the community, and the first Discovery Place Kids Museum was opened in 2010 in Huntersville, North Carolina. Planned as a network of community-based children’s museums, Discovery Place Kids aspires to maximize the whole child by offering imaginative environments that encourage learning through play. The network continues to expand through public-private partnerships, with a second Discovery Place Kids opened in 2013 in Rockingham, North Carolina.
Discovery Place Kids
In the Fall of 2010, Discovery Place opened its first Discovery Place Kids Museum in Huntersville, North Carolina. As part of a larger vision to develop other Discovery Place Kids locations across the region, Discovery Place Kids-Huntersville aims to appeal to families with young children and offers those living in outlying suburban communities the opportunity to visit a Discovery Place Museum closer to home. An $18.7 million public-private venture between Discovery Place, Inc. and the City of Huntersville, Discovery Place Kids-Huntersville, aimed to offer unique, learning-through-play experiences for young children. The network continues to expand through unique public-private partnerships, with a second Discovery Place Kids opened in 2013 in Rockingham, NC.
Address: 301 N Tryon St, Charlotte, NC
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