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Friday, July 9, 2010

Grand Rapids Public Museum - The Whale

This has to be the most impressive museum entrance piece we've seen in our state. You turn the corner from the entry desk and right smack overhead is the skeleton of a gigantic whale. It's sheer size is so incredible that it will stick in your mind forever whether child or adult. The collection is house in the Van Andel Museum Center, because Jay and Betty Van Andel contributed 3 million dollars for its fundraising campaign. Built on the river where the Voigt Crescent Flour Mill used to stand, the Grand Rapids Public Museum's throwback to that time is maintained in the red and burnt-orange brick used in the 1800's by Dutch immigrants. The museum opened in 1994 and has almost 90,000 square feet of space including a planetarium.

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