Hammargren Home Of Nevada History Open House Pictures

I want first to thank the volunteers who helped out. Your efforts helped create a safe and orderly open house with about 4000 visitors attending. Pam, MaryJoy, Paco, Susan, Nancy, Nikki, Erin, Rachel, Ben, Mary M, Darlene, Mathew, Jenifer, Zane and Jenny, Rex and Ali all get a great big round of applause from me for a job well done, and well appreciated.

And then a big thank you to Dr. Lonnie Hammargren and his saintly wife Sandy for allowing us to see the amazing Hammargren Home of Nevada History and it’s collection…. for what she swears will be the last time.

I was thrilled that so many of you sought me out, (or ran into me accidently) and introduced yourself. There were at least 30 of you that I actualy met, and a lot of the volunteers were asked if they knew where I was.

Susan told everyone at the main entrance that they’d “get lost for sure, but that’s 1/2 of the fun”.

Behind her is the reproduction of the Sistene Chapel. and one of the oldest “marriage gondolas” still in existance.

There’s more of my pictures below the fold, but I did find this compilation video that does much better justice to some of the collection.

This is the dome from the Dunes Hotel. It cost 250,000 to build in Europe.

No one else could figure out how to save it when the Dunes came down, but Dr. Lonnie pulled it off and now it’s the roof of the “Cathedral of Knowledge”

And the chandelier that hangs below it was Bugsy Siegel’s, but I don’t know the story of how it got there.

The cathedral of knowledge

Dr. Lonnie once told me the name of the lion that once welcomed all visitors to the MGM, but I’ve forgotten, and forgot to ask again. Of course it ended up in his collection. Where else?

Frank Dino and Red were part of the Entertainment.

One of Dr. Lonnies current projects is a 2/3 sized reproduction of a space shuttle on the roof. The Cargo Hold will contain part of the neon collection. The Frontier sign has already been installed.

Mary Joy got stuck outside with the raffle ticket fundraiser for Friends of Classic Las Vegas. Thankfully she’s tireless in her dedication!

If you didn’t come or couldn’t make it, I hope you’ll try next year.

And last but not least, just for the true die hard VVV fans who made it all the way to the bottom, I found a small collection of the Circus Circus pattern of the decorative concrete blocks that we’re so fond of.

It also gave me an opportunity to finally publish nude art on my blog.