Please Touch Museum is a not-for-profit children’s museum in Memorial Hall in Philadelphia, PA, for kids and families ages birth to about 8. Originally, the museum was a pilot project that opened on October 2, 1976, in the Academy of Natural Sciences (ANS) and served just 25 children at a time. It eventually grew to a 30,000-square-foot facility on North 21st Street and has occupied historic Memorial Hall since 2008.
The museum’s focus is on learning by doing and play. It has two levels full of both permanent and temporary exhibits on food, family life, science, history, imagination, construction, and creative activities. Food & Family is a permanent exhibit of 3,650 square feet that features a shopping market, home and industrial kitchen, and neighborhood festival area. There is even a historic Woodside Park Dentzel Carousel, designed over 100 years ago. Over 25,000 historic toys, games, and other items are housed in the museum’s collection.
During fiscal year 2025, Please Touch Museum had 397,117 visitors. The free and reduced-admission programs reached 118,254 visitors—30 percent of the total—and 8,954 School District of Philadelphia students participated in free field trips. These community programs were not realized in dollars but had a value of $2.4 million.
The museum also has accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums until 2033. The William Penn Foundation in 2026 invested $872,350 per year over three years in its ACCESS admission program.
The Please Touch Museum is a blend of interactive exhibits, learning programs, historic collections, and community access programs for young children and families. It is a longstanding children’s museum and education center in Philadelphia due to its emphasis on learning through play.
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- Closed Now11:00 AM - 04:30 PM
- Thursday09:00 AM - 04:30 PM
- Friday09:00 AM - 04:30 PM
- Saturday09:00 AM - 04:30 PM
- Sunday11:00 AM - 04:30 PM
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