Philadelphia Thinks Big

Please Touch, launched during the nation's bicentennial celebration, is now housed in the last major surviving building from the Centennial Exhibition. The museum's Statue of Liberty installation, created by local artist Leo Sewell, is a stand-in for the statue's arm and torch, which were displayed at the Centennial to raise money for construction of the monument in New York Harbor.

The reborn facility is part of the city's newly christened Centennial District, which also includes the Philadelphia Zoo and Fairmount Park's Horticultural Hall, constructed for the bicentennial on the site of a building of the same name from the 1876 event. To further mark this history, the museum includes the "Centennial Exploration" section, where adult history buffs can peruse an 1889 model showing the 200 buildings of the Exhibition, while their kids play dress-up in period clothes and marvel at inventions unveiled at the event, including the telephone and that object of antiquity known as the typewriter.

Former Philly kids also can wax nostalgic over the set and props from the iconic local children's TV show "Captain Noah and His Magical Ark," as well as the "Rocket Express" monorail from the toy department at the former John Wanamaker flagship store and a collection of scenes from the Enchanted Colonial Village, a seasonal display from another defunct department store, Lit Brothers.

I especially liked seeing displays of toys, classic and not, treated as objets d'art in glass cases. Barbie and Lite-Brite seemed like keepers, but I think the jury may be out on the ubiquitous Elmo.

Although the museum pays due homage to the past, the Please Touch is very much a place where little ones, and kid-focused activities, rule the proceedings.

Even face-painting, that standard of many a festival and birthday party, is the domain of its junior patrons.

As befitting the Please Touch's expansive new home, Andrew went big with his personal paint job, adding layer upon layer of color to his cheeks before moving on to his next moment of discovery.