Orlando Science Center

The Central Florida Museum (CFM) was established in 1955 and first opened its doors in Orlando Loch Haven Park in 1960. For the first decade of its existence, it served as an anthropology museum. Where it housed collections of items from Florida and the Caribbean Basin. The CFM’s board of directors decided in the early 1970s to refocus the organization’s efforts and transform it into a “hands-on” scientific and technology center. In 1973, the facility was renamed in honor of John Young, a famous native son, an astronaut born in the area.

The name of the institution changed to Orlando Science Center in 1984 as part of an expansion and a shift in philosophical orientation. Another extension completed in 1985 added a permanent physical sciences hall, a moving exhibit hall, and Curiosity Corner, a hands-on exhibit area geared to children in the pre-school and early primary school age groups. Several sequences from Ernest Saves Christmas were filmed at the Orlando Children’s Museum, which recently opened in a new facility. NatureWorks, a prototype for the OSC’s flagship natural science display, was built as part of the final edition of the original site, which took place in 1990.

In May 1992, the Orlando Scientific Center Board of Directors and staff prepared a comprehensive master plan for the facility, which included a layout for a new science center. Construction on the new science center began in the early 1990s and was completed in 1995. In 1997, the new Orlando Science Center, which was 207,000 square feet in size, opened its doors for the first time. It is six times the size of the previous plant, which was decommissioned on December 31, 1996. JoAnn Newman is the current president and chief executive officer of the scientific center.