For twenty-eight years the Big Purple Box of Fun has lived at 323 Walnut Street in Monroe. On August 27 we broke ground on a box twice the size.
Tap anywhere to send one up
River Delta, as drawn.Concept art, 2024
Sneak peek
Ground broken
August 27, 2026
2404 Broadmoor Boulevard
Doors open
Fall 2027
Target date
New building
20,000
square feet — double today's
How it started
Two teachers, a road trip, and a survey.
In the mid-nineties, Melissa Saye and Martha Ryan — both teachers, both mothers — drove to the children's museum in New Orleans and came home with an idea.
They asked first. Surveys went out across the region, a traveling outreach program showed families what a children's museum even was, and the answer was yes. Doors opened on Walnut Street in August 1998. Melissa has run it every day since; today she's leading the move, and she's the one who chose to renovate instead of build new so more of every dollar lands in rooms kids can touch.
Every exhibit is built to Louisiana's education standards, because a teacher built them. And every Monroe City Schools kid gets in free — bus included.
"Together, we are building a brighter future."
The line on the groundbreaking invitation, August 27, 2026
"This moment represents both progress and responsibility."
From a purple box on the Ouachita to a bigger one on Broadmoor. Some of these you can play with.
1998
Open the doors.
Twelve interactive exhibits and a line out the door. Fifteen thousand people came through in year one, and the region found out it had wanted this all along.Tap the doors
2004
2008
The Earth Balloon takes off.
With CenturyLink's help, a giant inflatable Earth starts visiting classrooms across the state. It's still going. Visitors begin driving in from Mississippi and Arkansas.Tap to inflate it
2022
2024
Apr 2026
Jun 2026
Aug 27Done
Break ground.0 of 3
Nine in the morning at 2404 Broadmoor Boulevard. Neighbors, supporters, and local leaders on the site of the next twenty-eight years. The same day, St. Francis pledged $250,000. You just did it too.Tap the shovel
Oct 2026Next
Fall 2027Target
Doors open.Twenty thousand square feet. Eight rooms. A parking lot that fits a field trip. Exhibits built around healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, and the river — the actual place these kids are from.
Scroll sideways for the whole path. The plane flies with you.
The new box
Twice the box. Same purple.
The old CenturyLink building at Forsythe and Broadmoor gives the museum 20,000 square feet and a parking lot that fits a bus. Here's what's going inside.
10,000sq ft · Walnut Street
→
20,000sq ft · Broadmoor Boulevard
Imagine Future YouThe health and careers district. St. Francis just put its name on it.Baby Bayou, next chapterSoft floors, a cypress wall, and room for a stroller convoy.The River Delta boatA paddle-wheeler you can climb aboard. The wheel turns.From aboveEight zones. Tap them on the floor plan below.
Zone 2
River Delta
The Ouachita, the Mississippi, and the land between. Water you can move, dam, and flood — and the reason Monroe is where it is.
Zones and naming levels come from the concept plan the museum published during the campaign. The final layout in the Broadmoor building may shuffle them — the museum has what's current at (318) 361-9611.
What it still needs
The building is bought. The ground is broken.
What's left is the part kids will touch.
$6.5Mto turn the old CenturyLink building into the museum — about half the cost of building new
$3.5Mraised by June 2024, the last full figure published — the museum says it's "almost there" now
New · Aug 27$250Kfrom FMOL Health | St. Francis, naming the 5,100-square-foot Imagine Future You health district
Publicly announced so farBuildout goal
Seven rooms still open for naming$150,000 to $400,000 each. Imagine Future You is spoken for.
First 100 donors go on the lobby wallGive at a Founding Family level and your name is in the new building for good.
