Does anyone remember the interior of the old Chicago Academy of Sciences museum in Lincoln Park, east of Clark at the beginning of Lincoln Park West? I remember going there in the mid-to-late '70's and thinking it was the coolest museum of all - it was set up like you were actually in the ancient pre-development landscape of Chicago - the building columns were disguised as "trees" with branches coming off them, there were mirrors on the ceiling to give the illusion that the "trees" continued up, there were fake plants all over the floor with paths between them, and there were dioramas on all sides with stuffed animals etc. If I recall correctly, that was the main floor and then it continued upstairs, with maybe an astronomy exhibit with stars on the ceiling? The other thing was that there was never anyone there. We were almost always some of the only people in the museum.

Does anyone know what happened to all the exhibits? Are any of them still in the building? I think its used for park district offices now. The museum became the Peggy Notebart Museum, but its totally different now and there was some minor scandal involving that process that was written about in Chicago Magazine a few years ago, I think.

At any rate, I wonder if anyone else remembers the old Museum and/or could tell me how long it was set up that way? From what I recall the exhibits seemed old in the '70's, as if they were from the '50's, maybe.