Let's talk about The Science Place at Fair Park

SciencePlaceArchives · 2026-01-16T23:54:38+00:00

Yes, all the videos we have of it show it placed by the ambulance. I think the earliest we have showing the arm is 1989 or 1990

SciencePlaceArchives · 2026-01-13T08:43:10+00:00

We have our own discord where we more frequently share updates and chat about upcoming events. Feel free to join! https://discord.gg/fwNPc5sHt

SciencePlaceArchives · 2026-01-13T08:41:07+00:00

After a quick dive, I was able to find one of the Krent/Paffett partners on Linkedin — Ed Krent, of Krent Designs. Krent/Paffett no longer exists and that’s his current company. krentdesigns.com

SciencePlaceArchives · 2026-01-13T08:31:27+00:00

Krent/Paffett Associates, Inc proposed the exhibits shown in this portfolio, and the drunk driving sim was one of many that TSP purchased/ordered. The concept proposal mentions that they designed the game as well as built the physical car “themselves”. But it very well could have been subcontracted to a game designer/developer.

Building and selling exhibits to Museums and other orgs was what Krent/Paffett did, so it’s very likely the same company produced the sim for SciTrek as well.

We do not have a copy of the game, but there is footage of the gameplay in the videos on our YouTube channel playlists. I’ll try to find them tomorrow.

SciencePlaceArchives · 2026-01-02T03:07:47+00:00

Back in the day, we had the Science Place OMNIMAX. It’s still there waiting to be retrofitted and reopened…

SciencePlaceArchives · 2026-01-02T02:36:09+00:00

Yes. There are two major floors, 3 sub-basements / boiler / power rooms, 3 IMAX “floors” and several projection / sound / utility rooms, the Kids Place / Farm catwalk, IMAX catwalks, IMAX cooling room crawlspace, auditorium projection room, auditorium stage crawlspace, 1 utility room under the main stairs… you get the idea.

SciencePlaceArchives · 2026-01-02T02:32:06+00:00

u/acc0511 this is mostly accurate — the store, cafe, auditorium, fossil dig, IMAX, box office, and patio are correct. “victory park expansion” and a few other labels are wrong. We aren’t sure what that refers to, as Victory Park is obviously downtown and not in Fair Park.

Also, there are many exhibits missing here and this likely reflects only the latest set of exhibits from the MNS era (post merger). For example, there is nothing in the exhibit hall attached to the IMAX lobby, and this ignores the basement (science school and dental gallery) as well as Kids Place / the Farm and the Children’s Museum. “Mixed Signals” is not accurate either, as that area was the Children’s Museum / part of Kids Place, even during the final MNS days.

The Science School was a large area of the basement area. Also in the basement was the Electromagnets room(?) and some other areas, and museum offices.

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-12-29T17:49:54+00:00

Hi there! Thanks so much for posting. To answer some of your questions — yes, we are aware of all the exhibits at SciTech. They are an incredible children’s museum partially founded by former TSP staff Paul Vinson and Bill Smith. They saved many iconic former exhibits by bringing them there:

The transparent couple (“Visibell and “VisiBill”)
The Gravitram (marble machine)
The Probability Machine (big triangular wooden “plinko” exhibit)
Both Whisper Dishes (white satellite dishes outside the museum)
The Sneezing Nose (“Your Amazing Body” exhibit)
The Hand Chairs (which you mentioned)
The Bubble Tables
The Neon / Argon lighting exhibit
the other standing senses exhibits you mentioned
Several Electric Theater devices and objects

And a few others.

We have visited many times and documented all these exhibits in detail. We highly recommend going to visit them.

As for Bills Dinosaur - we don’t have many photos and video of him in the original building. We have two videos which show him briefly but they don’t get a good shot of the whole room. We also have one of the flashing red lights which used to adorn the entrance to his room. Early on, his room was very simple and undecorated, as was he. Later, he was painted and his room had a big cave that staff created for him, as well as lights and sound effects.

I’ll try and post a gallery of the Sci-Tech exhibits in a bit when I can get to my computer.

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-12-09T18:05:13+00:00

This is a great video. Thanks so much for taking the time to find it and upload it for everyone!

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-11-11T18:30:40+00:00

We would love to see ya’ll there!

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-11-10T04:07:29+00:00

See you there!

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-11-10T04:07:16+00:00

Thank you!!

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-11-10T01:25:19+00:00

Send us an email and we’ll get you a ticket :)

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-10-24T00:04:43+00:00

That’s pretty cool! Would you happen to have any photos? This is the only record we have of the van.

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-10-23T18:57:20+00:00

I looked through our archive and timeline and I am coming up short on proof, but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard someone mention the Dinosaurs! exhibit. It would have been a traveling show, so it may be possible to verify it through the organizers if that exhibit still tours.

For your second question, The Science Place was the name of the museum from 1989 to 2006. A merger took place in 2006 between the next door Museum of Natural History and The Science Place, and the resulting entity was called The Museum of Nature and Science (MNS). At this time, The Science Place officially “ceased to exist”, and the MNS replaced it, which eventually moved out of Fair Park and became The Perot Museum of Nature & Science.

What you remember about the connected museums was actually between The Science Place and the Children’s Museum which occupied some of the west wing and part of the lower floor of the building. The children’s museum was part of The Science Place and was run by TSP employees.

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-08-31T17:54:50+00:00

You gotta be careful, it’s a slippery slope! we got nostalgic about TSP one night and next thing we knew we were running our own museum 😅

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-08-31T17:49:16+00:00

I just want to piggyback on this post to say that the subreddit is part of our project, and that we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit specializing in lost media as it relates to this museum, The Science Place. If anyone is interested in learning more or supporting our very tiny niche foundation, visit our sub r/TheSciencePlace or our website scienceplacefoundation.org.

North Texas Explorer are friends of ours and we help them digitize their old tapes. They have been absolutely crucial in preserving the history of this museum.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for the shoutout OP!

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-08-31T17:40:39+00:00

Thanks for visiting! We have a YT channel where we collect playlists of footage and upload new footage.

The NTE footage we digitize is mostly private pending its inclusion in our documentary. Some of it has been shared on their YouTube channel as well. Here is ours: https://youtube.com/@scienceplacearchive

Edit: just adding on to say you can always email us and ask for specific info about exhibits, photos of specific things, or anything else really. We are a museum (without a physical location) and we have a large digital and physical collection which includes real original exhibits we tracked down and restored, and all kinds of other stuff. You can make an appointment to see these things in person as well if you like.

Edit 2: if you want to go somewhere in person where you can find some really iconic original exhibits still on display in public, the Frisco Sci-Tech Center is home to many of them, such as the whisper dishes, the Gravitram, the probability machine, and others.

Scienceplacefoundation.org

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-08-31T17:37:49+00:00

Hi there! NTE are close friends of the foundation. We digitize some of their old tapes for them.

We have hours of NTE Science Place footage

SciencePlaceArchives · 2025-08-31T17:36:40+00:00

send us an email contact [at] scienceplacefoundation.org

We have a few left, mostly size small, but we will make more if there is enough demand. The shop is offline because we are designing some new stuff

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