1450 A. D., a town near this site was home to people of the middle Mississippian culture. Several thousand people lived in this town protected by a stockade made of wattle and daub. Because Angel Mounds was a chiefdom (the home of the chief), it was the regional center of a large community. The Children's Museum of Evansville opened its doors to the public in September 2006. The museum is the result of two years of planning and was constructed in the historic Central Library downtown. The Art Deco building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum offers visitors three floors of interactive exhibits and galleries. The Evansville African American Museum was established to continually develop a resource and cultural center to collect, preserve, and educate the public on the history and traditions of African American families, organizations, and communities. The museum is in the last remaining building of Lincoln Gardens, the second federal housing project created under the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1938. The Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science is home to one of southern Indiana's most established and significant cultural centers. It holds the Koch Planetarium, the oldest in Indiana. Also on the campus is the Evansville Museum Transportation Center, which features transportation in southern Indiana from the latter part of the nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. The Reitz Home Museum is Evansville's only Victorian House Museum. It is noted as one of the country's finest examples of second French empire architecture. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In October 2005, the moored in Evansville and was turned into a museum (USS LST Ship Memorial) in recognition of the city's war effort. During World War II, Evansville produced 167 LSTs (and 35 other craft), making it the largest inland producer of LSTs in the nation. The USS LST-325 is the last navigable tank landing ship in operation. The Evansville Wartime Museum was opened on the weekend of Memorial Day in 2017. The Museum features exhibits commemorating Evansville's role in the Allied war effort during World War II including a display of one of the few remaining P-47 Thunderbolts. Mesker Park Zoo The Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden opened in 1928 and is one of the oldest and largest zoos in the state. Set in a park, the zoo features 200