“I am reclusive, just like Professor Phineas T. Pennypickle," laughs Pat Comerchero, Founder and Director of Pennypickles Workshop Children's Museum in Temecula. "Pennypickles is a place unlike any other - when you visit Pennypickles, you are seeing something that is immersing you in another world. It’s on the level of an amusement park-type experience rather than a typical children’s museum experience.”
Located on Main Street in Old Town Temecula, Pennypickles Workshop, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in June, was designed to “get kids into that headspace of magic and discovery through play and imagination. We are a place where dynamic things happen,” Comerchero says. “We’re about helping kids realize that there’s more to the world than just video games and toys.”
Spanning 7,500 square feet over multiple floors, Pennypickle’s Workshop was created to represent the home of the fictional reclusive inventor and scientist, Phineas T. Pennypickle, Ph.D., an absent minded professor and time traveler who has befriended and worked with some of the world’s most brilliant minds, including DaVinci, Einstein, Edison, Marconi, Tesla and Houdini. The Professor’s workshop is littered with gadgets and gizmos that provide children and visitors with the opportunity to learn through play. Comerchero remarks, “Science and magic go hand in hand. Science looks like magic and magic is actually science. It’s all about tapping in to the ‘fun factor’ so that it doesn’t feel like another boring field trip.”
Within its walls, visitors can experience and interact with quirky and wondrous inventions and experiments in many of the rooms of the Professor’s home. Of the many rooms that are dedicated to exploration, guests can delve into time and travel in the Professor’s Library, perception and illusion in The Bedroom, sound and vibrations in The Music Room, power and electricity in The Dining Room and physics and chemistry in The Kitchen. There are also learning activities and hands on experiences to be had in The Basement, Hallway, The Playroom, The Bathroom and The Pantry.
“The world is a very amazing, adventurous place, and when I first came up with the concept of Pennypickle’s Workshop, it was sort of like Tom Sawyer meets Back to the Future…where there’s a synergy between the past and what will happen. And that is why the Professor is a time traveler because he can engage with famous scientists of the past and then come home and make a wacky invention. You can see that personality around the Museum….in his writings on the walls, in the cases.” Comerchero believes that the Museum’s design and exhibits make it appealing to people of all ages. “Little kids can come in and run around and play with things and as they get older they start reading and having the ability to notice the Professor’s humor. Adults and teenagers love the Museum because it’s so quirky and Steampunky and different – it’s a unique place.”
Over the course of its 20 year history, Pennypickle's Workshop has played host to thousands of school field trips from all around Southern California and has seen more than one million visitors. The Workshop has won several awards including a THEA award from the Themed Entertainment Association, two awards from the California Park and Recreation Society, and Nickelodeon Networks' Parents' Pick Award for Best Museum and Best Birthday Party Place. The Workshop is also available for birthday parties and private events. And word has been spreading. Pennypickle's Workshop has also been named as a recommended place to visit by such noted publications as AAA Magazine, Westways and Money Magazine. Comerchero says, “We’ve become a destination rather than just a place for locals to visit. We’ve become a ‘must see’ and we’re very proud of that.”
The mom of two whose background is in journalism, says her inspiration for the Workshop was borne out of her desire to make learning more interesting and effective while homeschooling her two sons. “I realized that they loved history and science more than any other subjects. And so I started turning everything into science experiments. And when [my husband] Jeff became Commissioner for the Community Services Department in Temecula, I got to know people at the City.” Sometime in 1997, Comerchero went to Temecula’s then-City Manager and pitched an idea. “I said, ‘The way Temecula is growing and the way it’s growing with families, it really needs a children’s museum.’ I said, ‘It needs to be immersive….and going into someone’s home is immersive - you see what their personality is like. There needs to be crazy inventions everywhere, and secret tunnels and every spot that you look there has to be something engaging.’ It never would have happened without Jeff’s involvement and him helping the City seeing what it could be.”
Comerchero is thrilled with the realization of her ideas. “I was there through the entire building process. Going in and seeing what was in my head actually coming to life was like an experience I can’t even explain, it was so amazing. And I try to plan every new exhibit that way – what is fun for kids? What are they getting a kick out of that is teaching them a scientific concept?” She is excited to put her mind to work once again developing new experiences and attractions at the Workshop. “Anytime I plan something new, I think about what would be fun? Soon, we’re going to have an exhibit where kids can actually catch fish out of the Professor’s bathtub, and I want to expand The Music Room to include a larger permanent display for visitors who gather in that room.”
And now, 20 years in, Comerchero is prouder than ever of the work the Museum is doing. “One of my initial inspirations was that years ago I had read that a scientist from Riverside had won the Nobel Prize. And when he was asked what his inspiration was, he said that when he was a kid his parents had bought him a chemistry set and that’s how he got started. And that one event was so inspiring to me – I wanted to spark an interest in someone’s future. You never know the effect your works will have on someone else or the impression that you are making upon kids and where that will take them. I’m very proud of the fact that we have kids who have visited us and who now are in science careers. One of our former visitors is now in microbiology, there’s someone in the aeronautics industry, and others in the chemistry field. And that’s very meaningful.“
I said, "There needs to be crazy inventions everywhere, and secret tunnels..."