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The Stamford Museum & Nature Center

A family friend called to tell us about a great museum and nature center she recently discovered. It was the Stamford Museum & Nature Center. Truth was, after the toddler years and another five years of being a Cub Scout leader I’d seen my share of nature centers, museums, petting zoos, and the like.

It was a brisk March Sunday and I just wanted to relax. My kids were on spring break and already bored to tears, despite the fact that their vacation was only 48 hours old. My wife made the executive decision that we should all pile into the van and go for a nice Sunday drive and check it out. It was no small excursion, because we lived about an hour north and west of Stamford. I shrugged, fired up the GPS and soon we were cruising toward Southern Connecticut.

Worth the trip

And I was glad we did go, the Stamford Museum & Nature Center proved to be well worth the trip. The temperature turned a little warmer as we traveled through the byways of picturesque Pound Ridge, Scotts Corners and eventually the rural northwestern section of Stamford. We found the museum easily and pulled in to the grounds.

The stately museum building greeted us. We later learned that this beautiful structure was the dream house of Henri Bendel, founder of the upscale department store of the same name. Bendel wanted his home to be a re-imagined Tudor Mansion. He hired architect Perry Barker to bring his vision to life in the late 1920s.

Indoors

Today, the grand rooms are used to display an ever-changing array of exhibits. When we were there, parts of the building were undergoing renovations, but we did get to see the museum’s permanent collection of vintage telescopes and an exhibit called “Two Artists Look at the Sky” by Greg Mort and Etienne Leopold Trouvelot. Mort is an imaginative and whimsical painter while Trouvelot was a printmaker who painstakingly created incredibly detailed images of the night skies.

Outdoors

The day became increasingly warmer so we headed outside to the grounds for a stroll. Stamford Museum & Nature Center offers excellent walking trails that interconnect through a hard wood forest, wetlands and glacial rock fields. Although it was still early in the season, I’m fairly certain I heard wood frogs in some of the quieter sections of the trail.

Of course we saw several species of birds, chipmunks and squirrels. The trails vary in difficulty and they also access the adjoining 88-acre Bartlett Arboretum. The Museum also has Wheels in the Woods, a trail that is universally accessible to people of all abilities. The trail consists of a boardwalk that follows and crosses the Poorhouse Brook at two very picturesque spots.

A Farm TOO

We returned from our walk to visit the Heckscher Farm. Unfortunately, we’d missed the farm’s Maple Sugar Festival by a week. I made a mental note not to miss this event next year. Although my kids are in middle school, they couldn’t resist the Nature’s Playground area, which features a giant-sized bird’s nest for climbing, slides, giant log tunnels and a sand pit. Younger kids would love it even more.

And More

The Stamford Museum & Nature Center has so much to do that it is impossible to see everything in one day, or one night. In addition to a planetarium which has a show every Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., the Stamford Observatory is located right on the property and is open to the public every Friday night from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m., weather permitting.

Spring is a great time to visit the museum. May 4 features a Model T and Ford Mustang classic car show. On May 11 the museum is having a special nighttime, “Go (and Glow) in the Dark” Outdoor Adventure recommended for ages 6 and up. May 18 and 19 is Spring on the Farm, a weekend for families to meet the newborn farm animals.

Bob Berry is a freelance writer and illustrator.

When You Go…

The Stamford Museum & Nature Center

39 Scofieldtown Road

Stamford, Conn.

203-322-1646

www.stamfordmuseum.org

Admission:

$10 adults, $5 children ages 4-17, free for ages 3 and under. Observatory: $3 adults, $2 children.

Hours:

Bendel Mansion & Galleries: Monday to Saturday

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Heckscher Farm & Nature’s Playground: April to October daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (weather permitting).

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