Wish you could go to the Neon Museum right now?

Oh this is great - thanks for posting that. Love that place.

 

I was there last week. Not much has changed. Temperature checks and waiting outside the lobby were the precautions, but the size of the tour groups was about the same as they've ever been.

 

I hadn't seen this post before, but I want to second it.

I've been a Neon Museum member for years, even before living here, and it's a vital and unique institution. Vegas has very little Vegas-specific "culture" to it; there are science museums, and art displays, and performing centers, but this is probably the one place specifically dedicated to the history of the Las Vegas Strip. In a town where giant complexes are torn down and rebuilt all the time, things like the Silver Slipper display and the old Stardust sign (which was an important example of Googie design) are important to preserve. In addition, the visitor center is the old La Concha, which was designed by Paul Williams, one of the first black architects in the United States and the first black AIA member, and the sign from the Moulin Rouge is from the first racially-integrated hotel-casino in the United States, which in the 1950s that was a pretty big deal.

To me it's not unlike historic preservation movements in the United States, which never really existed until they had to. They tore down the old Penn Station, which was a Beaux-Arts masterpiece, and replaced with... whatever you want to call it now. Similarly, I believe Neon Museum was created in response to the destruction of the old Sands sign because they had nowhere to put it.

EDIT: This is what happens when I don't remember to go back and read previous posts, because I didn't realize I'd already said something similar. But I leaving it up because I stand by it despite the repetition.