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This page last updated on 06/17/2019
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12/05/2012 Trip Notes: The Neon Museum is located on Las Vegas Boulevard and Bonanza, across the street from Cashman Center and along the Las Vegas downtown museum corridor. Though this is my second visit to the NEON Museum and Boneyard, it was my first since the completion of the new visitors center, the rehabilitated La Concha Motel lobby (Fig. 03), a seashell-shaped, Mid-Century Modern building designed and built by architect Paul Revere Williams. Currently located adjacent to the curated collection of signs at the boneyard and opposite the new NEON Boneyard Park (Fig. 02), the La Concha used to be located on the Las Vegas Strip next to the Riviera. It was saved from demolition in 2005 and relocated to the Boneyard to become the new visitors center. The mosaic, located in the lobby of the visitor center, is the original that was once displayed behind the motel’s registration desk. This visit and guided tour with my friends Jim Herring and Patrick Adams, wound its way through most of the museum’s 150 plus vintage signs. This one hour tour was filled with informative information about the most treasured and world-famous signs and the landmarks that they came from such as - Caesars Palace, Binions Horseshoe, Golden Nugget, Silver Slipper, Stardust, Frontier, Tropicana, Sahara, etc. The first collage below (Fig. 04) was created from a small handful of the pictures that I captured on this latest tour.
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| (Fig. 04) Titled - A New Beginning |
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05/22/2010 Trip Notes: I toured the NEON Museum’s Boneyard on a tour with my friend Jim Herring. I created the collage below (Fig. 05) from a series of photos that I took along the tour of this three-acre “boneyard” that houses more than 150 historic, non-restored signs. Each has been donated or loaned by individuals, businesses and sign companies such as Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO).
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| (Fig. 05) Titled - A Bygone Era |
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NEON Museum History: Neon signs were first introduced in Las Vegas in 1929 at the Oasis Café on Fremont Street. Probably one of the most recognized is the world's most famous neon attraction. Designed by Betty Willis, the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign has been greeting visitors at the southern end of the Strip since 1959. But as LED and LCD screens began taking over the Las Vegas Strip, many of the old signs were removed. About 20 years ago people from the Allied Arts Council and Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO), the manufacturer responsible for creating a number of the city's neon pieces, began collecting and preserving the old signs. Once the city allocated space for the museum, YESCO then donated its retired signs to the fledgling organization. About 40 percent of the Neon Museum's collection originated there, and items from newly imploded or remodeled properties are added continually.
On October 27, 2012, after more than 15 years after being established, the Neon Museum opened to the general public, offering a new visitor center, park, and look at the history of design and architecture in Las Vegas, via the advertising that defined us. The moment came after years of hard work by a dedicated few, along with financial uncertainty, as the grassroots nonprofit sought to fund the rescue of signs amid many demolitions. Even though much has been donated, relocation and refurbishment is quite costly. Saved from demolition in 2004, relocating the shell-shaped La Concha lobby to serve as the museum’s visitor’s center came with a price tag of about $1.2 million (to move and re-assemble). La Concha Architect Paul Revere Williams designed the lobby in the shape of a shell. Its swooping concrete roof line is only 3 inches thick, juts 5 feet from the glass wall and reaches 28 feet high. The cement and glass structure, built in 1961, had to be sliced up in order to travel from its original location on Las Vegas Boulevard.
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| The Neon Museum officially "opened" on November 15, 1996, with the installation of its first refurbished sign at the intersection of Las Vegas Blvd. and Fremont Street, the Hacienda Horse and Rider (Fig. 06). The construction by the city of the new Neon Boneyard Park began on February 8, 2010. The park now sits adjacent to the museum’s new visitor center, the La Concha on Las Vegas Blvd. North and complements the campus of the Neon Museum Boneyard and visitor’s center. Funding for the project was provided by the Bureau of Land Management through the sale of public lands as authorized by the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. This keeps the funds from Nevada federal land sales in the state for parks and trail projects. |
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| Today’s concentration of extraordinarily constructed large-scale signs provides a rich aesthetic walk down Memory Lane. More than 15 refurbished signs can be visited on a self-guided walking tour 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in our outdoor downtown “gallery”. The gallery begins in front of the Neonopolis at Las Vegas Boulevard near the Hacienda Horse and Rider and includes the original Aladdin’s Lamp (Fig. 07). All restored to their original condition, the gallery extends to the 3rd Street cul-de-sac adjacent to The Fremont Street Experience canopy and includes The Flame Restaurant, Chief Court Motel, Andy Anderson, The Red Barn, Wedding Information, Nevada Motel, and Dots Flowers and then down Las Vegas Blvd North to the Bow & Arrow, Silver Slipper (Fig. 08) and Binion’s Horseshoe (Fig. 09). Many of these are best viewed at night when they are all lit up. Three signs set for restoration, The Lucky Cuss Motel, Society Cleaners, and The Normandy Motel, will join Binion’s Horseshoe, the Bow & Arrow Motel, and the Silver Slipper once they are installed on Las Vegas Boulevard in downtown Las Vegas. To find out more about the NEON Museum, go to their new website at http://www.neonmuseum.org/tour-info. |
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Clicking the picture-link below will open OneDrive in a new window and a folder containing 115 pictures taken on a couple of trips to the Neon Museum. To view the show, click on the first picture in the folder and you will get the following menu bar:
Clicking the "Play slide show" will play a fullscreen window of the slide show.
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