The Maine Discovery Museum, located in Bangor, Maine

Bangor, Maine

Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...

, is the largest children's museum

Children's museum

Children's museums are institutions that provide exhibits and programs to stimulate informal learning experiences for children. In contrast with traditional museums that typically have a hands-off policy regarding exhibits, children's museums feature interactive exhibits that are designed to be...

 located north of Boston, Massachusetts.
It opened in 2001 in a converted department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

following several years of planning and fundraising. Despite attendance that has exceeded expectations since its first year of operation, the museum has struggled each year to meet its operating costs. The museum was able to receive assistance from the state in the form of a grant, despite a Bangor city panel choosing not to further fund the museum. The museum is currently undergoing its first significant renovation since it opened.

The museum includes many things, including:

• A two story tree house
• A lifesize model beaver dam
• A large music department, full of different instruments from different culture