Children's Museum History
1963
The Junior League founded the Museum and its first home was the basement of the Utica Public Library. Its original name was the Junior Museum of Oneida County and there was one exhibit - an Iroquois Longhouse.
1965
The Museum moved to the former Department of Parks & Recreation Building at the southeast corner of the Memorial Parkway and Oneida Street. In its nine years there, the museum developed a variety of permanent exhibits and a large range of educational programs.
1974
The Museum moved to the upstairs of the Valley View Country Club and in 1975 changed its name to the Mohawk Valley Museum.
1979
The Museum moved to the Bagg’s Square neighborhood of Utica, in the former John C. Heiber Dry Goods Building at 311 Main Street. Exhibits were on the first floor and half of the second floor.
2002
For years, three of the five floors, each floor approximately 6,000 square feet, were used for exhibit and program areas. In 2002, the fourth floor was opened and adopted by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE OS).
2007
The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
2017
The Museum and Kids Oneida (renamed ICAN in 2019) entered into a managed services contract with ICAN handling operations, development, marketing, and facility upkeep.
2020
On March 4th, ICAN and the Children’s Museum announced the museum will be moving and rebuilt at 106 Memorial Parkway in Utica. A week later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the former museum closed sooner than expected.
Virtual programming was created and provided to our community’s children, as we adopted a new way of connecting our museum to families during a global crisis.
2021
The Mobile Museum rolled out to the community to “take the fun on the road” while the new museum was being built.
In October, ICAN and the Museum held a groundbreaking event for the new location.
2023
The Rotunda on the new building was completed - a 4,000 square foot, 2-story glass round addition to our new home on the Parkway.