T-Rex-sized changes are being planned at the Springfield Museums. Laying the pre-historic foundation before that, though, are improvements made possible by ARPA funds.
Featuring facts and models ranging from the Precambrian to the Cenozoic era, the Dinosaur Hall has been a fixture at the Springfield Science Museum for years – complete with a 20-foot-tall, life-sized Tyrannosaurus rex replica.
The space detailing earth’s evolution is due for an evolution itself. Springfield Museums leadership has previously said the Dino Hall could do with an overhaul. A reimagining of the space is hosted on its website – one that could see more exhibit space and dinos featured, while potentially boosting the number of field trips it hosts.
To get to that to that next phase, though, some major improvements are needed, officials say – many recently complete with the help of federal dollars via the American Rescue Plan Act.
CEO and President of the Springfield Museums Kay Simpson says ARPA dollars made much-needed HVAC and climate control upgrades possible, on top of other additions.
“We also were able to upgrade our lighting - we made electrical upgrades - we put down new carpeting, we purchased those animatronic dinosaurs, which are in the Welcome Center, and those are really foreshadowing the upgraded dinosaur experience that we are going to be working on over the next several years,” she told reporters Friday, March 7.
Those new dinos are actually familiar faces in western Massachusetts – they’re short but accurate replicas of both the Podokesaurus holyokensis, the state’s official dinosaur, with fossils first found near Mount Holyoke, and Anchisaurus – found in the Springfield and Connecticut area.
The two little guys (they’re both believed to have been under two meters tall) are now some of the first faces you see in the Science Museum Welcome Center: both animatronics designed to move in place via-air compressors.
Touting the additions at a recent press conference, officials like Congressman Richard Neal of the 1st district called the Springfield Museums a cultural center for western Massachusetts and beyond – one more than worthy of the funds invested in it.
“This is the cultural center of Western Massachusetts in many ways – the museums, accompanied by a Carnegie Library – it’s a reminder when you see the names on many of the buildings about the benefactors and the local government and successive mayors and others who have decided that this treasure constantly would be reinvigorated by financial support from different levels of government,” Neal said. “But also, an enormous number of private contributions that have made it the envy of Massachusetts attractions. So, whether it was dinosaur tracks in Granby, MA, which have attracted tens of thousands of people or those who will come to the museums here and enjoy the investment that is being made here in STEM research, that's a big deal.”
Mayor Domenic Sarno echoed that, touching on how dinosaurs tend to capture the interest and attention of kids of all kinds – a prominent first step toward getting children interested in STEM, something the Springfield Museums want to foster with future plans for the dinosaur exhibit.
The mayor also had thoughts on the plumage of the raptor-like Podokesaurus.
“I just think it shows the side of culture, arts and history, and Springfield is so rich in history,” Sarno said. “We are the City of Firsts [as seen] in the The Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum [of Springfield History Museum]. But dinosaurs – everybody, young or gold, loves dinosaurs, and you have the animated ones that are out there –one of them, I said, looks like a pheasant that had a tough time.”
More information on the hall’s potential reimagining can be found here.
