User:Keith8404/Enterprise Square USA

Enterprise Square USA was an interactive educational attraction and museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, intended to teach about the advantages of the American free enterprise system and encourage entrepeneurial acitivity. Enterprise Square USA operated from 1982 to 2001 in a 60,000 sq.ft. building on the edge of the campus of Oklahoma Christian University.

History

The idea for Enterprise Square was originated in 1975 by Robert Rowland, who at that time was the director of the American Citizenship Center at Oklahoma Christian College. The American Citizenship Center had been established in 1966, at the height of the Cold War, with three primary goals: to support the principle of constitutional government, to promote an appreciation of the private-enterprise economy, and to emphasize the preservation of personal freedom. Seeking to expand the treaching of free enterprise principles, Rowland promoted the idea of an interactive educational attraction to the college's adminsitration and board. A public fundraising campaign for construction of the $15 million project was begun in 1979, led by former Phillips Petroleum Company chairman William Martin, with a total of $4 million having already been pledged from Phillips, The Noble Foundation, and Edward L. Gaylord. Designers from the Walt Disney Company who worked on the Epcot Center were brought in to design the building and the exhibits and state-of-the art digital technology was incorporated into the design. Opening ceremonies were held November 19-20, 1982, and Bob Hope, who had recorded a welcome video used within Enterprise Sqauare, was a featured guest at the grand-opening. Time magazine noted the event in an aricle entitled "Entertaining Enterprise" in its November 22, 1982, edition (featuring a cover illustration of Yuri Andropov) and wrote "[b]aseball and football have long had their halls of fame, and now capitalism is about to get a showcase that will surpass them both. Called Enterprise Square, USA, the 60,000-sq.-ft. megastructure on the campus of Oklahoma Christian College (enrollment: 1,700) will be a paean to the free-market system when it opens this week.".

For many years Enterprise Square was a popular destination for educational trips from schools in Oklahoma and nearby areas, with total visitation by school children between 1982 and 2000 reported at about 600,000. Other visitors included Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and Southwest Airlines chairman

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