The museum began as a pilot project of the Junior League of Holyoke, today known as the Holyoke-Chicopee-Springfield Head Start. In the year after the destructive fire that razed the
William Skinner and Sons mill complex next to
City Hall, the
Department of Environmental Management began drawing up plans for a new state park on the site, part of the Heritage Parks program inspired by
Lowell Heritage State Park. Hoping to make a children's museum a part of the Heritage Park Project, the Junior League of Holyoke opened a pilot version of the museum to crowds on September 27, 1981, in a renovated storefront at 171 High Street. Modeled on the
Boston Children's Museum, the prototype had four exhibits, a mock-up of a firetruck by local carpenter Jay Mulcahy, a mock post office, a
paper mill exhibit where volunteers would blend wood pulp for children to make their own paper sheets, and a small
linocut print shop. In its early years the museum would try several different exhibits, in part designed to foster empathy toward the disabled. Among these was a 1983 temporary exhibit introducing children to
disability studies with activities such as having children attempt to tie their shoes wearing oversized gloves, riding different wheelchairs, attempting to read in
braille, and completing various puzzles while blindfolded. Other examples included an animal exhibit introducing children to hamsters, rabbits, and other pets loaned to the museum by a local pet store, "Fins, Feathers and Furs", as well as demonstration of the work and training of
seeing-eye and
hearing dogs. In its first several years the museum would also incorporate exhibits celebrating different cultures, including events such as demonstrations of cooking
Indian food, and
Irish dancing. On August 9, 1984, the museum officially incorporated as a separate nonprofit entity from the Junior League, as Children's Museum at Holyoke, Inc. The museum would finally begin its move to Holyoke Heritage State Park with a groundbreaking ceremony for the renovation of the Sheldon Building, a storage building of the former Skinner Silk Mills, on November 9, 1985. Almost two years later, a
ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on the evening of June 5, 1987, along with another ceremony for opening of the
Volleyball Hall of Fame in the same building; the museum opened to visitors with regular hours the following day. ==Exhibits==