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apollonaut. Built by People Who've Been

Journal / History

History, science & heritage

From a junior museum.
To a campus by the bay.

The story of Frost Science, from a volunteer-run junior museum in 1950 to an aquarium, planetarium and science museum in downtown Miami.

Looking up through the Oculus, the round lens beneath the Gulf Stream Aquarium, at rays and shoals of fish in blue water
Looking up through the Oculus, the round lens beneath the Gulf Stream Aquarium, at rays and shoals of fish in blue water.

A junior museum

In 1950 the Junior League of Miami opened the Junior Museum of Miami in a house on Biscayne Boulevard, built from donated and loaned exhibits and many volunteer hours. In 1952 it moved to the Miami Women’s Club building and became the Museum of Science and Natural History.

The Miami Women’s Club building on Biscayne Bay, the museum’s home from 1952
The arched entrance of the former Miami Science Museum in Coconut Grove, its home from 1960 to 2015

Coconut Grove and the planetarium

In 1960 Dade County built the museum a new home in Coconut Grove, on land belonging to Vizcaya, and in 1966 the Space Transit Planetarium opened there. Its Spitz projector, one of only twelve of its type, was still running when the Coconut Grove museum closed in 2015.

A new museum by the bay

A $35 million gift from Phillip and Patricia Frost in 2011 helped fund a new museum designed by Grimshaw Architects. It opened in downtown Miami’s Museum Park on 8 May 2017: four buildings on four acres, with an aquarium, a planetarium and two wings of galleries.

Museum Park and Biscayne Bay seen from above in June 2014, while the new museum buildings were under construction

Continue exploring

Looking up through the Oculus, the round lens beneath the Gulf Stream Aquarium, at rays and shoals of fish in blue waterThe AquariumFrom the surface to the deep.Rows of seats beneath the blue-lit dome of the Frost PlanetariumWhat to see at Frost SciencePlanetarium and galleries.Plan your visit

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