The History Museum at the Castle — Attraction in Appleton

I went to the museum last week just before the traveling NFL Hall Of Fame exhibit closed. Having visited the HOF in Canton, OH twice before in the 1990's and 2000's my visit this time still did not disappoint. With two floors of space, there was lots of new, interesting things to see about the history, players and officials of the NFL. Great stuff and it was great that the museum could snag this exhibit.

Other things to see were the "permanent" Houdini display on the third floor and, in the basement, a local history set up of which I have been there and done that.

Interesting is the new exhibit of former area toy manufacturers and in general, toys through the years. You could sit through almost an hour of old black and white and color TV commercials of kids toys from the 1950's, 1960's and early 1970's. Neat.

Also in the basement there is a huge N-scale model railroad layout roughly depicting the Appleton area. Cool. I wonder when they run it.

The admission price was pretty steep at $10, so if you have a family it could be a costly visit. So you may want to wait until there is an exhibit opening that you really...

Difficult to navigate in a wheelchair. Our nursing home residents had an outing here. It was hardly wheelchair accessible. The elevator shuts on you after 3 seconds (not an exaggeration), there is no door hold so I had to awkwardly position my body over the first wheel chaired person in the elevator to hold the door manually while another wheel chaired person rolled in. If this was not done, the elevator would close on them which is hurtful to the elderly and fragile in wheelchairs. The incline in the basement area was so steep that it took muscle and going backward with a wheelchair to get up and when going down was so hard and fast it hurt the tailbone of the resident I was with. The football exhibit was good but I wish there was more than one room of the toy exhibit which was a favorite of everyone. The staff was super friendly and apologized about the elevator stating it's been like this for a while and they don't know how to get it fixed. I hope this post will help make that happen as well as grading those very steep ramped inclines in the...

A nice museum, though very small. The exhibits are brief and do not take long to get through. All in all plan to spend 30-60 mins total depending on how fast you read. Houdini is the exhibit still that has the most appeal, the rest are fairly dull and simple. Based on the price of admission, we were expecting much more as compared to museums throughout the rest of the state that charge the same. $10/person means a family of 3 (2 adults 1 child). Came to $27.50. The engagement and interactions you truly get are minimal. Mostly posters with facts, a lack of artifacts etc. If the price were still $5 as others have mentioned, I feel that would be more appropriate for the time and experience you get here. Times are tough etc I understand, but that means put forward some more into your museum and fill in many of your empty rooms with more for us to enjoy then you can justify...