City Museum
1601 Washington Ave, St. Louis, MO
St. Louis, MO
A ten-story former shoe factory reborn as a climbable maze of salvaged bridges, planes, slides, and caves, part playground, part sculpture, part fever dream.
City Museum is not really a museum in the usual sense but an enormous, climbable work of art built inside a former shoe factory in downtown St. Louis. Created by the sculptor Bob Cassilly and a crew of artists, it is a fantastical warren of tunnels, caves, slides, bridges, and towers assembled largely from salvaged industrial material, old chimneys, construction cranes, airplane fuselages, and the leftover parts of the city itself, all welded and rebuilt into something to climb through.
The genius of the place is that visitors do not just look, they enter it. You crawl through tunnels, wriggle up into the ceiling, slide down multiple stories, wander onto the roof, and explore caves in the basement, all inside a ten-story building that has been transformed top to bottom. It draws people of every age, and it has become one of the most beloved and unusual attractions in the country, a monument to reuse, imagination, and play.
What Guests Love
- Climbing, sliding, and crawling through a whole building turned into a playground
- The two vintage airplanes and salvaged industrial parts built into the structure
- A multi-story slide that spirals down through the building
- The rooftop with its Ferris wheel and school bus perched on the edge
Worth Knowing
- This is a hands-on, physical place, so wear clothes and shoes you can climb in
- It is designed for exploring by crawling and climbing, and can be tight in spots
- Layouts twist and turn by design, so getting a little lost is part of the fun
- It draws big crowds on weekends and holidays, so weekdays are calmer
Details
St. Louis, MO
Learn about City Museum
A sculptor's playground
City Museum was the vision of Bob Cassilly, a St. Louis sculptor who bought a hulking former shoe factory and set about turning it into an immersive playground of art. With a team of artisans he built the interior into a labyrinth of caves, tunnels, and climbing structures, using welded rebar, salvaged stone, tile, and endless bits of the industrial past. Nothing about it is off-the-shelf; it is all handmade and one of a kind.
Cassilly's philosophy was that a museum could be something you play in rather than walk past, and City Museum embodies that fully. It opened in the late 1990s and has grown and changed ever since, with new sections added over the years. Cassilly died in 2011 in an accident while working on another ambitious project, but the museum he created continues to evolve in his spirit.
Built from the city itself
Much of what makes City Museum extraordinary is that it is assembled from salvage, the discarded and demolished parts of St. Louis and beyond. Old bridges, chimneys, cornices, gears, and other industrial artifacts have been reclaimed and woven into the structure, so that climbing through it is like exploring the bones of a city reassembled into art. Two vintage airplanes are perched outside for visitors to climb into, and a school bus hangs off the edge of the roof.
This ethos of reuse gives the place both its wild look and a deeper meaning. It takes the leftovers of an industrial age and makes them into something joyful and useful again. The result feels less like a designed attraction than like a found world, one that rewards curiosity around every corner and never quite reveals its whole shape.
Exploring the maze
A visit is entirely hands-on. Visitors crawl through metal tunnels that snake through the building and even out into the air, climb up into hidden lofts, and slide down chutes, including a spiraling slide that drops through several stories at once. The basement holds a network of caves to explore, and outdoor sections extend the maze beyond the walls of the building.
Because it is built for climbing and crawling, City Museum rewards comfortable clothes and sturdy shoes, and it is not for those who dislike tight spaces. The layout is deliberately disorienting, with passages that lead in unexpected directions, so getting a little lost and stumbling onto something new is part of the experience rather than a flaw. It is physical, playful, and unlike anything else.
The rooftop and the neighborhood
The roof is one of the museum's showpieces, home to a Ferris wheel, more climbing structures, a rooftop pool in season, and the famous school bus hanging over the edge, all with views out over downtown St. Louis. Climbing all the way up and out onto the roof is a fitting climax to working through the building below.
City Museum sits in the Washington Avenue district, a stretch of historic warehouses and shoe-factory buildings that have been converted into lofts, restaurants, and shops. The neighborhood is walkable and lively, and the museum is an easy addition to a downtown St. Louis visit, close to the Gateway Arch and the riverfront.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near St. Louis
Gateway Arch
About 1 mile east
The soaring stainless steel arch on the riverfront, the tallest man-made monument in the country, with a tram to the top.
Washington Avenue loft district
At the museum
A walkable stretch of converted warehouses and shoe factories, now lofts, restaurants, and shops.
Union Station
About 1 mile southwest
A grand former train station reborn as a hotel and entertainment hub, with an aquarium and a large observation wheel.
Forest Park
About 5 miles west
One of the country's great urban parks, home to a landmark art museum, zoo, science center, and history museum.