A childhood passion for Legos grows into a world-class (unofficial) Lego museum. STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARGO BARTLETT
L
ike many kids, Conrad Brown loved Legos. He knew his dad shared that love, too. “I didn’t realize how much we were into Legos,” he says, until his father, Dan Brown, bought Bellaire’s former Gravel Hill school in 2007, with the intent to store his Lego collection in the 1915 building. It wasn’t long before the former school became the Toy and Plastic Brick Museum. The original plan had been to open an official Lego museum, says Conrad, now 26, but the Danish toy company ultimately backed out, and so the museum is an “unofficial” Lego site. Nevertheless, its displays include many that have been specifically licensed by
Lego and given to the museum when they were retired from official Lego sites. The building’s main hallway features life-sized Larry Byrd and Kobe Bryant figures, among others. A prone man made of red Legos appears contemplative
JUNE 2022 • OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING
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