GPS City GuideDowntown JacksonvilleMuseum of Science and History

Stop 16 of 34 · Downtown Jacksonville audio walking tour

Museum of Science and History

Southbank · 1969 · Museum Opens on Riverwalk

What you'll hear here: about a minute on Museum of Science and History — the story behind what you're looking at, playing hands-free as you arrive.

Picture MOSH around you, the Museum of Science & History in Jacksonville, Florida. This private, non-profit institution on the Southbank Riverwalk was the city's most visited museum, specializing in science and local history. Its galleries included three floors of permanent and signature exhibits and a large traveling exhibit that changed quarterly.

You can picture families arriving to the Bryan-Gooding Planetarium, the centerpiece added when the name changed to Museum of Science and History in 1988, after 37,500 square feet were added — including the planetarium then known as the Alexander Brest Planetarium. But MOSH's story goes much further back: the Jacksonville Children's Museum was chartered in 1941 and first housed in a Victorian mansion in Riverside. Construction began on the current city-owned downtown location in 1965 and the facility opened in 1969.

In 1977 it became the Jacksonville Museum of Arts and Sciences and six years later earned accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums. The last building renovation occurred in 1994, bringing the total to 82,200 square feet, and in 2010 the planetarium was upgraded with a new projector and sound system. Notice the Southbank Riverwalk spreading beside you.

Where it is

Coordinates
30.3195, -81.6599
Area
Southbank
Era
1969 · Museum Opens on Riverwalk
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.