EVERETT – A survey of Snohomish County rooftops might turn up the following things:
Television antennas. Michael O’Leary / The Herald
Shingles.
Seagulls.
Chimneys.
Stray Frisbees.
A life-size stegosaurus.
That’s right. There’s a dinosaur on one roof: at the Imagine Children’s Museum.
There’s also a paleontology research area and dig site, a tree with an eagle perched high above, a wooden fort packed with slides and stairs, a cloud-watching station and a corner for making music.
The museum is finishing work on its handful of rooftop exhibits, an $800,000 project that will open in the next month.
The additional exhibits will be open as weather allows, but visiting the rooftop will be included in the admission price.
The museum is $5 for those age 1 and older, and free for children younger than 1.
“More fun for your money,” said Nancy Johnson, the museum’s executive director.
The roof exhibit is the cherry on top of a sweet year for the 10-month-old museum, which will celebrate its first birthday with a bash Oct. 17.
Museum staff thought about 70,000 people would visit its new 1502 Wall St. location in the first year. Actual attendance has been almost double that.
With two months to go, more than 120,000 people have visited the $4.5 million children’s museum.
“It’s incredible, and it truly validates that there was a tremendous need for a place for children and families to go that was a wholesome, learning environment,” Johnson said.
The museum, formerly known as the Children’s Museum in Snohomish County, started at a strip mall in Marysville more than a decade ago before moving to Everett.
After a successful fundraising campaign, the museum bought its own location, an old bank building at 1502 Wall St. There, it became the Imagine Children’s Museum.
Johnson said she thought the museum would have to do another stint at fundraising to afford the roof exhibits, but a combination of creative budgeting and continued donations – both in-kind and monetary – made the roof project happen.
Apart from breathing in the fresh air, there’s plenty to do up top.
There’s a cloud-watching station with benches to lie down on and even a board that explains why the sky is blue and why clouds are white.
The stegosaurus skeleton is in a paleontology research area filled with bones buried under bits of ground rubber.
“Kids can just dig and dig and dig to their hearts content,” Johnson said.
An entire corner is devoted to Rooftop Rhythms, where kids can bang a drum or tap out a tune on a marimba.
Eventually there will be a 5-foot by 10-foot map of Snohomish County highlighting its towns and special attractions.
One side of the roof is taken up completely by Big Adventure, a climbing structure with slides and stairs and a lookout tower with amazing views.
The roof is covered in bouncy rubber mats, and the museum is ordering games with giant pieces to play in the open spaces.
“Some families have told us they like it better than Disneyland,” Johnson said. “Man, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
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