With the support of a $500 grant from Reader's Digest, it opened on March 11, 1973, in the library of the former Jefferson Junior High School.

[2] In January 1974 it moved to the former Highland View Elementary School, where it is still located, with 54,000 square feet (5,000 m2) of space for exhibits, classrooms, and special events.

The museum purchased the building and land from the city of Oak Ridge in 1983.

[4] During the period 1978 to 1982 the Children's Museum conducted a public education project known as "An Appalachian Experience," funded by a $376,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The project resulted in the development of teaching materials on Appalachia and the 1982 publication of An Encyclopedia of East Tennessee, edited by James R. Stokely III and Jeff D. Johnson (ISBN 978-0960683208).