The Gilbert House Children’s Museum is fun for kids, a way for them to see new things in a new context.
Gather up the kids and grandkids for an afternoon of the usual?
Nope, not at the Gilbert House.
There’s something undeniably sweet going on there for the big kids, the adults.
Maybe it has something to do with the man behind the name Gilbert.
He was soaking up all of the changes happening at the beginning of the 1900’s.
Automobiles and airplanes were developing industries when Gilbert was a young man in his prime.
He must have been interested in education growing up in Salem, which led to Pacific University and Yale medical school.
But that wasn’t enough to do, so he tinkered in other things.
He invented the pole vault box and set two world records in the pole vault including a record for 12′ 3″ (3.66 meters) at the Spring meet of the Irish American Athletic Club, held at Celtic Park, New York, in 1906.
He tied for gold with fellow American Edward Cook at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London for pole vaulting.
Was he a big deal? Oh, yeah.
Gilbert is credited with originating the concept of providing benefits for his employees, including free medical and legal advice and maternity leave.
In the 1930s, they lived in a property in Hamden, Connecticut called Maraldene which included kennels where Gilbert bred German Shepherds including one which won the Max von Stephanitz award.
He also owned a nearby 600-acre estate that he called Paradise. He used it for hunting and it housed his big-game trophies.
It was a venue for him to entertain clients and guests attending the Yale Bowl.
The guy had to have known everyone worth knowing in his time.
Is A Children’s Museum A Big Deal?
What contributed to the vibe at Gilbert House?
This blogger had never heard of it until yesterday, but I knew the name Gilbert was linked to the Erector Set like I knew View-Master’s Portland origins.
Here’s the secret:
Choosing not to pursue a medical career, Gilbert founded Mysto Manufacturing, a manufacturer of magic sets, with his friend John Petrie, in 1907.
Here’s an Olympic gold medal winner with a medical degree from Yale deciding magic is more important than falling in line with the rest of his fellow doctors.
What did his parents have to say about that. Was Al listening?
By 1941, Gilbert opened his first Gilbert Hall of Science, a toy department store in New York and could claim preeminence as the world’s largest toymaker.
And then:
How is it that a company with an inventive leader, whose first year of business produced less than ten thousand dollars and by 1953 was doing $20 million, went out of business?
Here was an Oregon man who rose to the top, like our own Phil Knight, to dominate his field.
A guy who showed he cared about others.
The Gilbert House Children’s Museum shows high levels of care.
Museum Man Grades Gilbert House Children’s Museum
I worked twenty years in a history museum with a history degree for better focus.
My favorite museum is the next one I find.
It will join the museums of North Bend, Paris, London, and Philadelphia I’ve been in.
I didn’t get any museum time living in New York, but lots since then.
The Gilbert House serves children of all ages and adults at every level of inquiry.
And the whole place has a wholesome feel to it, just pure fun for everyone I saw there.
On this Saturday the crowds were mostly inside loving it.
The kids and parents filled the Veterinarians Office, the restaurant, the farm to table room, and the linking hallways.
Every room required make-believe and imagination and everyone was revved up.
The Vet’s office had an x-ray light with animal x-rays.
I put them up on the light until some kid asked if they could do it.
I handed the x-rays over to a future doctor, I’m sure.
Take your kids in and watch what they interact with, and who.
Older kids and younger kids got along without pushing and pulling their way around.
All of the parents got the mission of the museum while their kids opened up to more new experiences than they get anywhere else.
It is fast moving, engaging, and more than worth an afternoon.
Our group was moms and dads and kids with all of us on the lookout for each other.
Every face I saw was lit up with the magic of the Gilbert House.
I believe that’s what the old magician aimed for.
Grade: A+
About David Gillaspie
