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A second life you can climb into

At City Museum in St. Louis, discarded objects become places to go. Follow the baking pans, industrial parts and artists’ hands, then choose your own way through the climbing spaces and quieter collections.

Things to do near you · GuidesChecked November 3, 20269 min read

The warehouse and outdoor structures set the scale of City Museum. Gregg Goldman / Explore St. Louis

Inside this guide

A baking pan has a fairly specific job. At City Museum in St. Louis, enough of them become a wall. A plane gets another career above a parking lot. Inside the former shoe warehouse, the distance between looking at an object and finding a way through it can be remarkably small.

That is the useful starting point for this place. Follow a material for a while: the repeated indentations in metal, a piece of carved stone, a coil large enough to enter. The climbing gives you one way to understand what the artists have made. Looking closely gives you another. Both belong in a visit.

Start with the baking pans

In a 2024 interview published by Explore St. Louis, creative director Rick Erwin described buying baking pans after Hostess filed for bankruptcy in 2012. CupCakes, Ding Dongs and Twinkies had left behind equipment with possibilities beyond the bakery. The museum could build walls from it.

Look at the photograph of the pan wall in Labyrinth. Rows of small metal recesses make a surface that is busy at close range and orderly from farther away. Colored light picks out their repetition. You can appreciate the pattern before knowing what made it; learning its former purpose gives the pattern a second reading. Industrial repetition has become an artistic resource.

Labyrinth opened on the fourth floor on July 4, 2025. Its materials come with unusually specific biographies: gears from the Mel Price Lock and Dam, glass recovered during Central Library’s centennial renovation, and red pipes from the museum building’s own fire system. The museum also identifies syrup tanks and a turbocharger saved for its snail-like shape. These are objects gathered across different kinds of work, brought into a new relationship.

Their earlier jobs help explain why the installation looks the way it does. A gear arrives with teeth, a tank with a curve, a pipe with a route built into its form. Working with those shapes imposes decisions on the artists. The resulting puzzle begins well before a visitor tries to find a way through it.

If Labyrinth is high on your list, its admission is included with a general ticket. The museum describes an approach up the stone steps from the third floor, between the Spider Net and Toddler Town. Ask staff about a suitable route if those steps present a difficulty; the existence of elevators elsewhere in the building does not establish access to every part of an installation.

The hands behind the passageways

City Museum grew from the work of sculptors Bob and Gail Cassilly and their crew. It opened in 1997. Its present-day identity still depends on people who can see a potential structure in an awkward object, then do the work of making the connection hold.

The museum’s own construction photographs are useful here. A person bends over a metal piece with a torch. Elsewhere, a worker faces an elaborate stone doorway with a ladder nearby. These are undated records of making, so they cannot tell us what is being built this week. They do make the labor visible.

Erwin now leads a team the museum describes as artists and certified playground engineers. There are different kinds of judgment in that combination. A salvaged piece can suggest an image, a passage or an unexpected turn; a structure people will enter also has to be made for use. The photographs make it easier to notice the joints and surfaces once you return to the finished spaces.

That attention changes a familiar question. Alongside wondering where a tunnel goes, ask how its parts came together. Look at where a curve meets a platform, how repeated metal pieces establish a boundary, or how stone gives a doorway its proportions. You can enjoy the surprise while taking the construction seriously.

Gravity already had a route

The old warehouse supplied more than walls. City Museum traces its slides to the building’s spiral chutes, which gave its artists a starting idea: use gravity to move through the place. The current collection extends that idea across many installations. Its origins in a working building are worth remembering on the way up.

A slide turns height into a short journey. It also changes the route for anyone trying to stay together. The museum warns that slides can travel between floors and recommends choosing a meeting place. The giant whale on the first floor is its suggested landmark. With children, make that agreement while everyone is still beside you, and write an adult’s phone number on their wristbands.

Outside, MonstroCity carries the reuse story into open air. Two Sabreliner 40 aircraft fuselages sit among climbing structures and walkways. A machine built for flight becomes part of a composition people approach at their own speed. The warehouse remains in view behind it, giving the outdoor structure a scale that a close photograph alone can lose.

The Enchanted Caves offer a different kind of enclosure. Their chambers and creatures are made things, with sculpted surfaces and a Wurlitzer organ among the details the museum identifies. The change from exposed metal to constructed cavern is a good reason to resist treating the building as one enormous obstacle course. Its artists work with different ideas of space. Give yourself time to notice the transition.

There is a slower museum here, too

You do not have to follow every climber to have something to look at. Architecture Hall on the third floor gathers salvaged architectural pieces; the fourth floor includes the Louis Sullivan exhibit. The museum’s map identifies these alongside the play spaces, cafés and practical facilities. A fragment that once belonged to a larger building can reward the same patient looking as a complete structure.

In the photograph of the architectural display, stone and metal pieces are arranged across a long wall. Their edges and ornaments become easier to compare because they have been brought together. Give one piece a few moments before moving on. Notice a repeating leaf, a border, a change in depth. A collection can offer its own pace inside a building known for movement.

For the stories behind the objects, consider a guided walking tour. The museum credits resident historian Maria Cassilly with developing these tours. Its FAQ describes a one-hour history tour, booked separately in addition to general admission, with limited group size. Check the actual booking page for an offered departure rather than arriving on the assumption that a guide is always available.

This is also a useful choice for adults coming without children. Architecture, sculpture and the histories of the objects provide a reason to visit in their own right. Start with a collection or a tour, then decide how much of the physical exploration appeals to you. There is no need to turn someone else’s route into your own.

Decide what kind of exploring suits you

The photographs make crawling through metal look appealing; they do not tell you whether a particular opening will feel comfortable. Look at an entrance before committing, read the posted restrictions, and ask staff when a route or exit is unclear. Choosing another way through the museum is an ordinary part of planning your day.

The museum reports elevators, ramps, and accessible entrances and exits, with staff assistance available. That information is a starting point for a conversation about specific needs. Narrow tunnels, climbing structures and slides present separate questions. Before buying, contact the museum about the spaces you especially want to reach and the help you may need. Avoid building an entire visit around an access assumption.

For those who do plan to climb, the museum recommends closed-toe shoes and pants or jeans for crawling and sliding. Knee pads are sold on site. Keeping your hands free and reducing what you carry makes practical sense; lockers are available for daily rental. Decide what you will actually use before bringing a large bag into a place of tight turns.

Families should also read the current supervision policy. The general rules require a chaperone aged 21 or older for guests 15 and under, and for guests under 18 after 5 p.m. The policy page also contains a separate rule explicitly limited to August 7, 2026; that one-day notice is not the standing rule. Recheck before departure, particularly for a group or evening visit. Planning supervision includes agreeing how everyone will find each other again.

Make the date fit the visit

City Museum is at 750 North 16th Street in downtown St. Louis. The museum’s Serpent Lot is at 16th and Delmar; its published visitor information lists parking at $15 and distinguishes it from nearby commercial lots using the museum’s name. Check that you are entering the lot you intend to use.

At our November 3, 2026 check, the official ticket page advertised 2026 daily admission starting at $20, with children two and under free. That is a starting price, not a complete quote for every purchase. Rooftop access and Pinball Hall are add-ons to the ordinary daily ticket. Review the final total and terms on the official ticketing page, including the year for which a ticket is valid.

The roof is a separate decision. Its Ferris wheel and other structures are weather-dependent, and the museum’s own pages describe its season differently. The FAQ says it opens as frequently as conditions allow and closes after sunset. For a late-fall or winter visit, check directly before paying for access and make sure the indoor museum is enough reason for the trip.

Hours also vary. Use the calendar for your chosen day, especially around an evening event. The announced City Nights: Goth Holidays on November 13, 2026 runs from 7 to 11 p.m. and is for guests 21 and over with valid ID. Its ticket includes general admission that day. That is a specific adults-only evening, with its own terms; an ordinary daytime visit follows the general admission and supervision rules.

The museum lists Weirdly Wonderful Holidays for November 19, 2026 through January 3, 2027. Treat that as the announced season and check each activity separately. The page has distinct dates for Santa and other programming, while holiday circus dates were still marked as forthcoming when checked. Choose the performance or activity you want before choosing a date, rather than expecting the whole holiday program every day.

Choose the day, then the extras

Admission and add-ons

Compare the daily ticket, its valid year, Rooftop access and Pinball Hall before paying. Check the final total and purchase terms.Open official ticket information ↗

Hours and special evenings

Use the calendar for the day you intend to visit. The announced November 13 City Nights evening is 21+; outdoor areas remain weather-dependent.Check the museum calendar ↗

Your route through the building

The museum provides an online floor map. For specific access needs, ask staff about the installations you want to reach rather than assuming every route is suitable.Open the official floor map ↗

Leave room for one more look

There is a small planning detail worth keeping: an intact wristband allows same-day re-entry. A break can be part of the visit. The museum permits water bottles but generally prohibits outside food and drink, and its purchases use electronic payment. Knowing those arrangements in advance leaves fewer decisions to make when everyone wants to stop.

On returning to a space, try changing the question. A first look might have been about the quickest way up, or whether you wanted to go through a particular opening. The next can be about the object doing the work: a pan, a carved doorway, a piece of pipe. Give it enough time to become recognizable.

That recognition is one of the pleasures City Museum has built into its materials. An old object can keep a trace of its earlier purpose while giving somebody a new place to go. You may end up following the passage. You may stay to look at the wall.