The Children’s Museum in West Hartford, a popular destination recognizable for its iconic life-size sperm whale replica “Conny,” is planning to leave its current location on Trout Brook Drive now that the lease at its current location has expired.
Among the locations under consideration is the former Hartford College for Women property on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Asylum Avenue in Hartford. Mike Werle, executive director of the museum, said the group is looking at multiple sites, including the property in the West End, and hope to finalize a deal within the next few months.
Werle said the reasons for the move include the museum’s lease not being renewed and a lack of room for growth at the current facility.
“The real issue is that our lease with Kingswood Oxford is up and they want the ability to do with the site what they want to do and we respect their position on this,” Werle said. “As to our current facility, it requires significant age-related maintenance and is very energy inefficient among other things.”
The 10.5-acre property on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Asylum Avenue is owned by the University of Hartford and is used for graduate housing. It also home to the Center for Montessori Studies and the Construction Institute. Werle said the property, which is on the market, appealed to the museum because it would allow them to expand their programming and be more accessible to the community.
“We see a need for potential incremental growth of 20 percent space-wise as well as programmatically to expand our agenda for the addition of more arts-based activities to complement our very strong STEM agenda,” Werle said. “[The property] will provide more space for our outdoor programs, easier access for our client families and synergistic opportunities with other nearby entities.”
The Children’s Museum was founded in Elizabeth Park in 1927 and serves 110,000 to 130,000 people a year. The group operates a full day pre-school, a nature center in Canton, camps and a host of other educational activities and services.
The West End Civic Association has historically been hesitant to support development on the property. In 2016, they opposed a plan by the UConn School of Law to convert the property into apartments for students and in 2012, a plan to build a magnet school was scrapped after opposition from the neighborhood.
But the plan to move the Children’s Museum onto the property hasn’t been met with the same resistance.
“The civic association has a long and storied history of objecting to everything that might go on that site,” Suzann Beckett, president of the association, said. “This parcel would be appropriate and it’s the right size and right location.”
In a presentation to the neighborhood in January, the Children’s Museum said they would preserve the property’s historically significant buildings and work with the neighborhood on other uses of the property.
“Everybody at the meetings thought it would be great. It was really encouraging to me, and hopefully it was encouraging to the board,” Beckett said. “I do think there’s a lot of interest. I think it could be a great quality-of-life draw for the West End.”
Another positive, Beckett said, is the possibility of having a family-friendly education center in the neighborhood.
“There’s a lot of families in this neighborhood. There are tons of kids. The whole street is full of kids and a lot of us bring our kids to the Children’s Museum now anyway,” she said. “As you know if you live in Hartford, there’s very little we have for the benefit of our kids.”
Faye Boulton, who lives across the street from the property said she was in favor of the move.
“They would have the Connecticut Historical Society across the street and this could become a learning center,” she said. “It would be an asset and I would love to see the whale come too.”
Kathleen McWilliams can be reached at kmcwilliams@courant.com.
