Ending a 55-year run, the front doors of the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science were locked to the public for good Sunday at it’s location next to Vizcaya.
Outgrowing two previous locations, the building first opened its doors on three acres of land from the Vizcaya estate in 1960.
Six years later, the state-of-the-art Space Transit Planetarium started transporting kids of all ages into the universe. At least one of those kids grew up to be a NASA Astronaut clocking 24 days in space.
On an exceptionally busy final day, though, 7-year-old Julia Alemany and her 5-year-old brother J.D. were fascinated by a platypus taxidermy and its egg.
Julia said she was sad the museum was closing, a place her mom and grandparents came as kids.
“It’s a sad moment for many people who have happy memories here,” said Gillian Thomas, president and CEO of the museum, “but we’re taking those memories with us and hope to create lots of new ones.”
The new museum, scheduled to open in the summer of 2016 will be located in downtown Miami, next to the Perez Art Museum. It will feature a 500,000 gallon aquarium, four times the amount of exhibit space and a brand new planetarium.
Julia’s favorite platypus and all the rest of the collection will make the journey over to the new building over the next year.