Just press play: The Strong National Museum of Play adds more fun with a massive extension

Game on: The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, has completed its massive expansion adding a myriad of new fun and games to the 40-year-old Western New York institution.

The extension adds around 90,000 square feet of additional exhibit space, including 24,000-square-feet dedicated to electronic games and 17,000 square feet of outdoor space where board games and their characters are reimagined as larger than life, to form a colorful playground, overseen by roaring (just press the big button) and fire breathing dragons. Yes, those dragons from the fantasy game, Dungeons and Dragons.

Serious About Play

The Strong has all game bases covered and is now one of the largest history museums dedicated to the exploration of play in the world; and it is the only collections-based museum in the world devoted solely to play.

Indeed, play is something to be taken very seriously at The Strong. Though, given the hollers and beeps, and constant activity among the interactive gallery displays, serious isn’t a word that comes to mind.

But The Strong houses the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, the National Toy Hall of Fame, the World Video Game Hall of Fame, the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, and the American Journal of Play. Simply, or not, The Strong is home to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of historical materials related to play.

While You're in Town ...

All of this is in the big little city at the top of the Finger Lakes region, just off I-90, best known for one time residents, the major abolitionists Susan B. Anthony, also a major figure in the suffragette movement, and Frederick Douglass. The Susan B. Anthony House museum on Madison Street is open for ticketed guided tours, and will see its own expansion with an additional museum building, expected to be complete in a couple years.

Lesser known, perhaps, Rochester is Kodak founder George Eastman’s home and business base, and his magnificent mansion on swanky East Avenue is now a museum dedicated to the man who democratized the act of photography.

As no nation in the history of humans has put as much store in play and leisure time as the United States, a museum dedicated to playing is appropriate. But why here in Rochester?

Well, it all began with one lady’s love of collecting toys.

It started with a doll collection

Margaret Woodbury Strong was born in Rochester in 1897 into the wealthy Woodbury family whose fine fortune arose from the Woodbury Whip Company, started by Margaret's grandfather. An only child after the death of her elder sibling, Margaret began a doll collection, something that continued through her life, even after marriage to Homer Strong.

Margaret’s collection of dolls, doll houses and other toys became so large that she created her own private museum, adding extra wings to their already large home, where she even built a town of doll houses on the estate’s grounds. Margaret called this her “Museum of Fascination,” and began opening it up by appointment. She was determined there should be a proper public museum dedicated to toys though.

One year before her death, she received the necessary state approval for the establishment to house her collection of around 300,000 items, including 22,000 dolls as the inaugural exhibit and cornerstone of what is now the Strong National Museum of Play.

Though a collector of dolls and possessing a fanciful mind, Margaret clearly had a savvy financial head, because she grew her wealth to over $77 million by the time she died in 1969, several year’s after Homer’s passing. Margaret transferred a large part of her fortune into a trust that is the financial foundation for the private, nonprofit Strong Museum.

A Brand-New World

In October 1982, The Strong opened its current campus on what is basically a landfill area, occupying the city’s defunct Inner Loop roadway in a newly built neighborhood: the Neighborhood of Play, which sounds a bit like it belongs in Mr. Rogers, or other children’s TV program.

Besides the Strong, the Neighborhood of Play comprises much-needed housing — simple blocks of boxy modern apartments line the adjacent street; and a newly built Hampton Inn opened at the end of summer next to the Strong Museum’s new spacious entrance lobby and gift shop.

Upstairs is where the extension gets exciting though: three new exhibit halls include ESL Digital World: High Score and Level Up, all very interactive. Create an avatar and have at it, gamers!

There is also a periodic table of video game elements and the World Video Game Hall of Fame, for the studious.

But it isn’t all about digital gaming — far from it. There is equal space and importance given to the most simple of playthings. There is the spectacle in such things as the world’s largest Donkey Kong, which repurposes and maxes out a handheld favorite into an exhibition piece that stands 20 feet tall. But take time to peer into the cases of smaller less animated objects in the extensive collection of hundreds of thousands of real sized objects, including dolls, board games, original cartoon cells and early “mechanical” toys. Yeah, those wind up ones.

Toying With History

The Strong shows the items that make up play through the ages as a serious cultural phenomenon. The Toy Hall of Fame is interesting in its fundamental approach to what is fun to play with: new inductee, the spinning Top, seems a given, but then there are other inductees like Sand and Stick. Yeah, OK, who hasn’t played with those perennials?

Alongside the permanent exhibits, visiting collections are also displayed. In September, a collection of Black dolls on loan from the New York City public library will be on display. Underneath those bright colors, flashing lights, and smoke breathing dragons, The Strong takes its role both documenting historical elements and shifting cultural mores very seriously.

The historic pieces include the original Monopoly board invented by Charles B. Darrow of Germantown PA in 1934. Its current parent company, New England based toy giant Hasbro, is well represented throughout the museum, including in the outdoor Garden of Play.

Room to Explore

Somehow, outside freed from walls and halls, play becomes more delightful. As if there’s more room to explore. The Garden of Play’s life-sized board games pair imagination with physicality. And then there’s the humbling hula hoop!

The Strong certainly seems to have all bases covered: Whether it’s Paw Patrol, Mr. Potatohead, or a 20-foot Cookie Monster blow up, playful characters are all here. Of course, the summer’s It Girl, Barbie, is well represented with a wall of dolls, including some Kens.

If thinking pink and Barbie isn’t for you, then maybe the Age of Empires gallery, which pays homage to the award winning fantasy historical RTS (real-time strategy) video game, works.

One element, the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden, however, seems out of place. Button quail dart dangerously underfoot with no protection from big adult feet or children’s hands; butterflies are prey to whims too. A sad reptile sits alone in a cage, on display. Nothing here is a toy.

Local Touches

One might wonder why is there a mini scaled down Wegman’s supermarket here? Well, this is Rochester, where Wegman’s was founded and a source of city pride, as well as groceries. Children can learn how to shop in this scaled down version! Not that they seem to need much help in learning to be consumers!

Also, among the extensive food court offerings is another local favorite, Bill Gray’s casual restaurant set in a mock-up Worcester dining car.

It’s a lot to take in — especially for young children — and thankfully the museum offers a two-day pass to allow spreading it out and more fully enjoying the experience.

Now, is it a children’s museum? Yes, it is. But not in the strict sense where only children will find it interesting. The Strong has nighttime events (even beer nights!) so that adults might indulge their creative and imaginative sides unhindered. Perhaps, best of all is adults and children breaking down the generational wall and sharing gameplay.

(The Strong National Museum of Play, 1 Manhattan Square Drive, Rochester, NY. museumofplay.org)

If You Go

Where to Eat

While Rochester is home to the so-called “garbage plate,” a shameless assemblage of junk food — hey, eat it if want it, no judgement — the city is also hometown to seven-time Michelin star awarded chef Richard Reddington, who made his name in California’s Napa Valley. Napa’s Redd, the Michelin-starred flagship restaurant, closed in fall of 2018; Reddwood, also in Napa’s Yountville, closed with the pandemic shutdown, but Reddington had already set his sights back East, opening Redd in Rochester in August 2019. Needlesstosay, it was a hit. Reddington’s focus here is the same as in Californian wine country: supremely fresh seasonal produce from local farms, wherever possible. Enjoy inside the bright restaurant embellished with mural of misty mountains; or outside on the shaded patio. Yes, outdoor eating in Rochester NY is a thing. (reddrochester.com)

Where to Stay

The Strong isn’t the only Rochester place hitting reset and renovation. The Woodcliff Hotel and Spa claims to have the best view in Rochester, and they might right. Set on a hill in the quiet leafy suburb of Fairport, a 20 minute drive from downtown, the hotel is flanked by a golf course and 70 acres of public walking trails. On site, the Woodcliff has two lavish outdoor pools with loungers, right by the gas fire pit. The secret weapon might be the spa though, which just underwent a massive renovation, adding more treatment rooms and a glass canopied relaxation lounge to take in those views. Essential oils, hot stones, Eminence organic products and a collaboration with New York’s Beekman toiletries forms the backbone of the Woodcliff’s rethink as a wellness focused resort — yes, wellness being a worn out buzzword, but still a fine ideal.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: The Strong National Museum of Play explores history of toys, games