The Neon Museum

The Neon Museum is a non-profit museum on Las Vegas Boulevard North, just north of Downtown Las Vegas. It was founded in 1996 to collect, preserve and display the signs that once lit up the city's casinos, motels, wedding chapels and shops.

As Las Vegas rebuilt its resorts, old signs were taken down and stored in yards, including the boneyard of the Young Electric Sign Company, which made many of them. The museum gathered these signs in its outdoor gallery, the Neon Boneyard, which was open by appointment from 2001 until the museum opened to the general public on 27 October 2012. Its visitor centre is the restored lobby of the La Concha Motel, a 1961 shell-shaped building designed by the architect Paul Revere Williams, donated in 2005 and moved to the site.

The collection holds about 250 signs, from mid-century designs to more recent pieces, including signs from the Stardust and the Moulin Rouge. Some have been restored and light up at night, and an illuminated show called Brilliant! projects light onto unrestored signs in a separate space. The museum has also installed restored signs along Las Vegas Boulevard as public art.

Visits are by timed ticket, with guided tours and self-guided entry available. Evening visits show the restored signs lit up. The Boneyard is outdoors with little shade, so summer daytime visits can be very hot.

The Neon Boneyard grew out of a storage lot. The Young Electric Sign Company, known as YESCO, made many of the city's signs and kept old ones in its yard; that lot passed to the museum in 2001. The site started at about 0.66 acres and has since grown to 2.27 acres, which the City of Las Vegas leases to the museum for $1 a year. The smaller North Gallery is the original boneyard.

The first sign donated to the project was the 5th Street Liquor sign from the late 1940s, a hand pouring a bottle into a glass. Other pieces to look for include a guitar from a Hard Rock Cafe and a historic Golden Nugget sign; the letters on the museum's own NEON sign borrow the shape of the Golden Nugget N. Restoring a sign costs between $10,000 and $100,000 and takes three to six months, which is why many remain unlit and are lit with spotlights on night tours.

The collection extends beyond the gates. The Hacienda Horse and Rider, refurbished for $60,000, was relit in November 1996 at Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street, where it marks the east entrance to the Fremont Street Experience. Hours change by season: from September to May the museum opens from 3 pm to 11 pm with last entry at 10 pm, and in summer it opens from 8 pm to midnight. The box office closes an hour before closing. Ticket prices vary by time slot, so check them on neonmuseum.org. Members enter free, and groups of 15 or more can ask the group sales team for rates.