Museum of Creativity

We are seeking immediate donations to begin to make this dream a reality both for us and for the community of Fort Scott, KS. We think that we can have a successful business and enrich the community with our hobbies and talents.  We plan to keep it open year round so during the cold winters the kids can have one more thing to do indoor. It will be a place for kids to share time with their parents and learn about handcrafts, brick toy building, music, model trains, video games, history and STEM.

The funds will be used for all the projects necessary to open the business including but not limited to:
-Getting the building up to code for groups larger than currently allowed
-Construction costs related to getting the themed areas ready for displays such as walls, paint, shelves and plexiglass, plumbing and electrical
-Adding an additional restroom to serve as the men's room
-Roof repairs
-Playground equipment
 
Once we get all the bones in we believe we have enough exhibit items already to open our doors at which point future funding will come from the proceeds of the business.

I believe that your assistance will dearly bless the children and parents of Fort Scott, KS.  It will offer this small town a safe place that parents can bring their children to learn, explore new things, have fun and relax together in all seasons. It will bless the lives of my in-laws who have served individuals and organizations large and small their entire lives.  I will be forever grateful for the chance this will give my family to share what we love with others.

If all goes well we hope to open in March 2021.


Here is the floor plan just as we purchased it.

And here is our current vision for the space. Solid red lines denote the new walls.  Dashed red lines are walls at half height. The strange squares in the middle are pillars holding up the 3rd floor.  The original tenant for the building when it was built was an insurance company and the area marked Barbie was their vault.  Unfortunately the giant vault doors are gone so we'll be putting up or own walls.

Back story:

Ever since I was in high school  in the late 1990s I dreamed of opening a museum for video game collectibles that I had begun acquiring.  When I got married, I found my wife loved to make handcrafted items and they quickly took over our home.  We would daydream with each other about opening a museum to display our collections. One time we saw a building for lease that formerly housed a big box retail store.  200,000 square feet!  Oh how the dreams flew.  We envisioned our collections combined with an indoor playground that resembled one we loved to take our kids to.  And with that much space we could incorporate her parents' hobbies.

My mother-in-law makes her own doll clothes and entire scenes in which to display them.  She usually has only enough space to display her most recent project however.

After retiring, my father-in-law started going all out with his model train displays. If you've ever seen a model train show, you can imagine how much space those can take up.

Alas, leasing 200,000 sf for an idea that wasn't guaranteed to be successful was way out of our price range. Always in the back of our mind but never giving up hope my wife was browsing Zillow just for fun and stumbled upon the perfect building in January 2020.  We put an offer in, it was accepted and we closed on March 13th, 2020. 

The building is 3 stories, each with 8,000 sf.  The top floor is an apartment so it was affordable since it would be both our home and business. The middle floor is where we will open our museum. The basement will be where we have the shop to do all the projects necessary for converting the middle floor.

We will be chronicling our entire process on our blog at www.weboughtamuseum.com.