Right in the middle of downtown Birmingham is a giant historic building (once a department store) that has, over the years, been remade into a megaplex of science and learning. The McWane Center came from the merging of two Birmingham-based museums— The Red Mountain Museum and the Discovery Place— in 1991. It was initially named Discovery 2000, but after receiving overwhelming financial support from the McWane family (one of the largest manufacturers of water and sewer piping in the world, and also a major funding source of the Vulcan in Birmingham), it received it’s new name and opened to the public in 1998.
27 Things to love about Alabama: The McWane Center
