FOXBORO –– The woman walking out of the Hall at Patriot Place was wearing a Patriots sweatshirt and a smile as wide as the crossbar on a goal post.

“It’s like Disney World for a football fan!” she said, beaming enthusiastically.

The team’s new hall of fame – it opened only last September -- is, indeed, a magical kingdom for Patriots fans of all ages.

 While the kids can engage in such interactive activities as kicking field goals, testing their vertical leap against Laurence Maroney’s, as well as their ability to get off the line of scrimmage against Tedy Bruschi, any Dads who have put on a few pounds since their playing days may want to skip the exhibit where they step on a scale and compare their weight with Vince Wilfork’s.

 Instead, older fans may prefer settling into one of the comfortable leather chairs in the clubhouse-like “Once A Patriot...” section of the Hall and listening to audio tapes of players from the first four decades of the team’s history – from Gino Cappelletti and Larry Eisenhauer, through Steve Grogan and Andre Tippett, to Drew Bledsoe and Willie McGinest -- swap anecdotes of their days with the Patriots.

 There is something for everyone in the hall, which is located just outside the north gate of Gillette Stadium – most certainly for anyone who has any interest in the Patriots.

 The exhibits encompass all of the team’s colorful and – since Robert Kraft took over the franchise – highly successful history.

They cover the full span of the half-century since Billy Sullivan brought the team into existence in the upstart American Football League – from the early days when players were concerned about whether their scanty paychecks would bounce while they sat on milk crates watching film from a flickering projector shown on bedsheet hung on the walls of the locker room at a high-school stadium near Logan Airport where they practiced, right up to the present, Super Bowl-era, when multi-millionaire talents like Brady, Randy Moss and Richard Seymour prepare for games comfortably watching video in classrooms reminiscent of a college campus.

While the focal point of the museum is the four, 30-foot-high pylons where 13 members of the Patriots Hall of Fame are honored, they aren’t necessarily the highlight.

Although the pylons are technologically dazzling – they light up with the name and number of whatever player is selected by the fan viewing the exhibit, who then can call up a highlight video of the Hall of Famer – the hardcore fan may gravitate to toward other, less spectacular, but more memorable, displays.

 Such as the “Building Blocks” section, where, on a recent visit, I could have spent hours viewing video clips and still photos from seasons past.

 Some visitors do just that.

 “I remember,” said Bryan Morry, the highly enthusiastic, and even more highly capable, director of the hall, “driving up from the Cape the day before the Cardinals game last December. It was snowing like heck outside, and there were only two of us working on the floor.

“But there was one young man – I’d say in his late 20s or early 30s – who was in the building for no less than six hours. He watched every bit of video we had, and stopped to read almost everything in the place. He said to me: ‘I had to come by myself, so no one would rush me along.’ ”

There is much to be seen – and savored – at the hall.

There is an abundance of traditional, “museum-type” exhibits, including an old uniform of the Providence Steam Roller, NFL champions of 1928. It belonged to George Pyne II, whose son, George Pyne III, played 14 games for the Patriots as on offensive tackle in 1965. His son, Jim, also played in the NFL, after an outstanding collegiate career at Virginia Tech, enabling the family to boast of three generations of NFL players.

 Visitors can stroll past the aluminum bench from Row 25 in Section 217 in the old stadium, where the Family Kraft had their season tickets. It’s near the “Duck Boat” in which the Krafts rode through the streets of Boston during the victory parade celebrating the Patriots’ first Super Bowl victory.

A particularly interesting exhibit is one featuring Bill Belichick, who explains, with the help of video, plays that fans can select from a Patriots playbook.

 “I can’t tell you how much effort and input Bill put into that,” Morry said. “He really wanted it to work well. It’s great for serious, X-and-O guys. But kids who play Madden video games love it, too.”

Hanging from the ceiling is the snow plow driven by Mark Henderson, a convict on work-release, who earned a lasting place in Patriots history – along with Dolphins coach Don Shula’s lifelong anger – when, at the direction of Pats coach Ron Meyer, he swerved off the 20-yard-line from which he was sweeping snow and cleared a place for John Smith to boot the game-winning field goal against Miami in December 1982.

That was the most memorable kick in Patriots history until Adam Vinatieiri – without the aid of a plow to clear away the snow swirling around his ankles – nailed a 45-yarder with 27 seconds left in the fourth quarter of the last game played in the old stadium to tie the Raiders and send their 2001 AFC semifinal playoff game into overtime.

The Patriots went on to win that game – on a 23-yard field goal by Vinatieri – and then their first Super Bowl, when Vinatieri also kicked the game-winner, from 48 yards, in the Louisiana Superdome against the heavily favored Rams.

“I’ll always remember the Super Bowl kicks” said Vinatieri, who also booted the game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XXXVIII, against the Carolina Panthers, in Houston. “Those are great memories. But, if you ask me what was my best kick ever, I’d have to say the one against Oakland because of the situation and the circumstances.”

That memory, and so many others, are vividly, and wonderfully, recalled and preserved in the Hall at Patriot Place.