PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Hundreds of people packed the Academy of Natural Sciences on Sunday for its last day of operation.
Parents brought their kids to see the iconic exhibits for the first and last time, and plenty more took a final stroll around to relive those childhood memories at the 198-year-old institution.
Tess Szathmary was visiting with her family one final time and said the feeling was bittersweet.
“I’m just trying to take it all in, see as much as I can before we don’t have the opportunity anymore,” she said.
Szathmary said she remembers coming there as a kid for a Girl Scout sleepover and staying in a room with a bunch of “big stuffed bears.”
But the museum is not going without a fight. The William Penn Foundation has offered to fund the museum for a year, and organizers stood outside in the rain to hand out flyers with QR codes to a petition and other actions.
Gwendolyn Clause was one of those organizers
“The fight only ends when the bricks are gone, and when we are silent.”
Drexel, who owns the Academy, has not responded to the offer from the William Penn Foundation.
When the museum closes at 5 p.m. on Sunday, a rally will be held, followed by a march to City Hall.
