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    Connections Museum

    5.0 (25 reviews)
    Closed • Closed

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    Sharon C.

    Anyone that has ever wondered how the telephone works should visit this museum. Actually, anyone that has ever used a landline NEEDS to visit the Connections Museum. Located on the third floor of a CenturyLink switching office/ building, the entrance to the museum is through the side of the building. There is free parking on site, which is a nice perk. I'll preface by telling you that this is a working museum. If you're expecting Smithsonian quality, you will be disappointed. The museum started by a group of telecom employees who recognized the change in telecom and wanted to preserve the art and technology for future generations to remember and study. Our tour guide was Collin and he is super knowledgeable and answered all my nerdy boyfriend's questions. It was so great to see the passion in Collin. He took the time to explain to layman like myself and showed us how it all started. The idea of having to educate the public what the dial tone is and how to operate a telephone is bizarre, to say the least. But visiting this museum will really give you a sense of time and appreciation on how far telecom has advanced. There is so much to see. So many things that you had never seen. It is a donation based museum, so please donate what you can. The docents are all volunteers that work on fixing these equipments on their own free time. They are also only opened on Sundays, so bear that in mind. Highly recommend it.

    Third floor of museum
    Lenore M.

    Truly a hidden gem, a must do in Seattle! My partner found it while we were visiting a couple weeks ago and it was the highlight of our trip! The museum is only open on Sundays for a few hours. The building is pretty inconspicuous. I wouldn't have known there was a museum there if I wasn't looking for it. You walk into a room with an elevator that tells you to go to the 3rd floor, which seems like you're in a strange mission. It opens up into this room filled with equipment - floor to ceiling! A volunteer greets you and asks you about your knowledge, then caters your 1.5 hour tour to what you're interested in. It was so much fun to learn and test out everything. Yes - it all still works! After our tour, we spent more time walking around to look at everything else we didn't get to on the tour. We went to a few other expensive museums while we were there, and this was our favorite - and it's free/donation only?! I highly suggest donating if you can. Cash only at the museum but we donated through their website afterwards. 100% worth it!

    Joe L.

    They have five stars across the board. Great way to spend 3 hours with the family. I've been to several phone museums and tours, this is the first one that had working switchboards and equipment. Seeing how things actually work was really interesting. Very camera friendly. The tour is lead by a volunteer who answers questions with enthusiasm. We made a small donation at the beginning but felt the tour was so good that we went back and left some more to thank them for a fun morning.

    Lawson E.

    Outstanding! This is hands-down *the best* interactive, hands-on museum that I have ever had the pleasure of going to. I'll keep it short. This isn't your typical museum with stuff in display cases that you can't touch. This is a full-scale WORKING telephone exchange system - correction, SEVERAL full-scale working telephone exchange systems. Equipment dates back to the original step-based dialing systems through the ranks of the various crossbar switching systems and into more modern PBXs from the 80s, 90s, and things that are still in use today. The staff are friendly knowledgeable folks, many of whom have made their careers in the telephone industry. All of them are eager to pass on the knowledge of how telephones work and the progress that the industry has seen over time. If you're in Seattle, you absolutely MUST visit this museum. They are only open one day per week (currently Tuesdays, soon to change to Sundays) for about 6 hours, and one additional day per month (currently a Sunday, soon to change to a Tuesday). PS: look through the pictures here on Yelp. I posted several including a video. PPS: Admission is FREE, but donations are encouraged - this equipment doesn't maintain itself. :)

    Les (the elder) showing us how they used to connect phone to phone!
    Carly R.

    Best place to go for engineers! Specially about the telecommunication industry! Also great experience for tourist. 100% recommended. The first time there today. Although we think it was a little sketchy that they might close of weather is too hot, once you went in you understand why they have to close if it's too hot out. The outlook of the museum is not anything fancy. But the entrance is pretty cool and when you go up to level 3... You will be amazed. (Also the journey begins!) So we went to the level 3 entrance and signed in, and then the old guy called Les came ask us if we need a tour! We said yes and that's the best experience ever! He is funny and nice and he answered all our questions with no doubt (cause he has 50 years of experience in the telephone industry!). And actually turned on few things to show us how they used to use it in the old times. I don't know how to explain. It is something that you don't wanna miss in your life! I appreciated what we have right now more than ever after the tour today. Everyone gogogogogo! Me and my buds are def going back again for the level 2 tour! (P.S. They offered treats and drinks and the pink cookie is awesome!!!)

    Alex S.

    Absolutely amazing! We had three tour guides and didn't even get to finish the whole museum. Jerry was my favorite. He showed us the different teletype machines. He showed us a wooden wall mounted telephone that was similar to the one his grandmother had on her farm in Minnesota. We will gladly tell our friends about this museum and will make a return trip in the near future.

    This little brass arm moves up and down to 10 available connectors, looking for an open circuit
    John K.

    The Connections Museum is one of the best exhibits I've ever seen. Our tour guide (pretty much essential for understanding what you're seeing) said that this museum came about when the telephone monopoly was being broken up in the 1970s, and the backroom equipment was being completely replaced with much smaller switching machinery that could deal with the coming data explosion. This museum preserves multiple types of earlier switching hardware, going back to the earliest automated methods of making phone connections. Being able to dial a phone, and physically see and hear the individual lines connecting themselves via the nearest currently available wires is just amazing. Having saved this local backroom hardware, tying most of it together, and keeping it running is one of the best examples of museum curating and conservation that I've ever seen. I'm not an engineer, but seeing this stuff in action transcends all the details. Seriously, don't miss this.

    Fantastic museum filled with communications equipment from over 100 years ago to recent history, many in working condition
    Karrot L.

    This museum is packed with telecom equipment from the early days though more recent decades. The volunteer workers are very knowledgable and enthusiastically demonstrate many pieces of equipment. Take a tour, you'll be amazed!

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    You go there. You will see my dad. His name is RW Dickensheets Jr.

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    Review Highlights - Connections Museum

    “I've been to several phone museums and tours, this is the first one that had working switchboards and equipment.”

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    Chihuly Garden and Glass - Glass artwork in the Macchia Forest exhibit

    Chihuly Garden and Glass

    4.6(3.3k reviews)
    5.7 mi•Lower Queen Anne

    Chihuly Gardens was so beautiful. I need one of these pieces in my home. What's cool is they have…read morean imax demonstrating how it's done. But not only that, when I was there there were also demonstrating outside. The art is so pretty and colorful. I highly recommend especially if you like art.

    Let me be honest about this one, I thought I was not going to be interested in this at all. See, I…read morebought the Seattle City Pass and had to pick one more thing to fulfill the purchase. This was it, I was not really looking forward to it and thought of it as a time filler. Was I ever wrong. I kind of fell in love with this place as I toured around. The beauty of this place really shines through. In the end, I was extremely happy that I got to view this space. This consists of the garden, glasshouse and exhibits. Each a beauty unto itself. Entering here you first go through the exhibit area. Take your time in this area, there are so many exquisite glass pieces to see. This is where you will see a lot of Dale Chihuly's pieces. Born in Tacoma makes the local connection even greater. Being in the shadow of the Space Needle lends for some amazing viewing and photos. It can feel rather crowded in here at some points. This is the only downfall in here. People are everywhere and will try to push you out of the way to see a piece. Not because they want to see the piece, but they are trying to create content. There were too many influencers in here. Each one with the same, narrowminded, self absorbed mission. To make content that they feel people online will clammer to view. There was this one that just rushed between exhibits. Not to view them, but to take a glamour shot in front of it and get the right angle to use at a later date with information fished from the internet to fill in the gaps they missed with their own two eyes. The only downside to this place, and does not detract from the stars here. If you can find your way around them, you can still enjoy the place and take it in for that moment.

    Photos
    Chihuly Garden and Glass - Glass artwork in the Sealife Room exhibit

    Glass artwork in the Sealife Room exhibit

    Chihuly Garden and Glass - It's right outside the space needle so you can see this yellow art and the space needle

    It's right outside the space needle so you can see this yellow art and the space needle

    Chihuly Garden and Glass - Glass artwork in the Macchia Forest exhibit

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    Museum of Pop Culture - Close-up of Roots and Branches sculpture at the Museum of Pop Culture

    Museum of Pop Culture

    4.0(2k reviews)
    5.7 mi•Lower Queen Anne

    A time was had at the Museum of Pop Culture. We learned a lot but we also love the interactive…read morethings. We walked around singing all over the place. There's one where it's like a dj booth with headphones. There's a place where people were in rooms learning how to play the guitar, piano & drums. There's a cool MJ section and more. We had fun. It wasn't all about music either, it was movies, shows games etc...

    This museum is just OK. Its aesthetic design is pretty nifty and it checks a lot of pop culture…read moreboxes (music, video games, multiple movie genres). On the other hand, it felt like most of the material is either pictures & basic bios of famous people, or physical props. Is it really that stimulating to see a replica of a proton pack, a Dalek, or a Starfleet uniform behind enclosed glass? The section with the highest potential was the music lab, but the interactivity seemed pretty limited. On top of that, I caught a few factual errors, like misspelled names ("Paul Ruebens"), or bloopers in their historical video reels (both 1987 and 1990 contained clips of The Simpsons, which are both wrong -- it debuted in 1989 as a standalone show). Somewhere on the floor there's a poorly conceived gallery of video game controllers, which inexplicably features some generic third-party controllers that don't count, while controllers from many important game consoles are missing entirely. These are all sloppy errors for a museum to make. All in all, I'd say this place offers maybe $15 worth of fun, but not the $35 they currently charge.

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    Museum of Pop Culture - "I'll be back!"

    "I'll be back!"

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    Gaming area

    Connections Museum - museums - Updated September 2026

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