Background Neon signage in
Las Vegas dates to the 1920s, and saw a significant increase in popularity, especially among hotel-casinos, during the 1930s. Many signs were manufactured by
Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO). In the 1970s, some locals advocated for the preservation of the city's neon signage. Calls for neon preservation became more prominent after the sign's removal. The locally based Allied Arts Council had been contacted by a Sands employee about saving the sign, but it lacked the necessary equipment and storage space to do so. In 1989, Allied Arts and its director, Patrick Gaffey, were working to establish a museum known then as the Neon Park, with 5th Street Liquor Store donating the first neon sign to the project. The sign, added in the late 1940s, had become well known among locals; it depicts a hand pouring a bottle of alcohol into a glass. Allied Arts set a site for the museum along
North Las Vegas Boulevard, near
Cashman Field. By 1991, the group had begun storing old signs for the future museum. Some were stored in the Nevada desert, In 1994, as Allied Arts struggled to obtain financing, the Southern Nevada Cultural Arts Foundation announced its own neon museum proposal. It would be built at the intersection of
Sunset Road and Eastern Avenue, with an opening expected in mid-1995. However, this project also stalled. In 1995, Gaffey said about the Allied Arts project, "Our problem was we never had the manpower to devote to really getting it off the ground." Las Vegas mayor
Jan Jones was supportive of a neon museum. In 1995, she recruited city employee Barbara Molasky to help make it a reality.
Formation and early years On September 18, 1996, the
Las Vegas City Council approved the use of $150,000 in redevelopment funds toward the establishment of the Neon Museum. Instead, the Neon Museum would focus initially on the re-installation of old neon signs along North Las Vegas Boulevard, helping to attract more visitors to
downtown Las Vegas and the new
Fremont Street Experience. It marked the first project for the Neon Museum, Molasky is the founding president of the Neon Museum. In preparation for an eventual museum facility, she and the organization's 18-member volunteer board sought advice from the similar
Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles. The storage lot and various signs had made film appearances in
Mars Attacks! (1996) and
Vegas Vacation (1997). The site later received dozens of tour requests every week that had to be turned down; YESCO lacked the time needed to give tours, and the frequent requests were one reason for the company's support of the Neon Museum. the museum later expanded to . when the company began transferring signs to the Neon Museum's lot, known as the Neon Boneyard. It was open to the public by appointment only, By the following year, the site had 75 signs. The collection grew to more than 200 signs as of 2006, with 50 coming from YESCO's storage site.
La Concha project and public opening in 2018 The Doumani family, owners of the
La Concha Motel on the Strip, donated its unique shell-shaped lobby to the museum in 2005, while the rest of the motel was demolished for redevelopment. The museum intended to use the lobby as a visitor center. Although it cost nearly $3 million to move and restore the lobby, the plans to open a museum became concrete after the donation of the building, drawing a number of public and private grants and donations. In 2006, the lobby was cut into eight pieces and moved north along Las Vegas Boulevard to the museum site. In 2010, the Neon Museum built a small park with desert landscaping, benches, and kiosks providing information about the history of neon. Known as the Neon Boneyard Park, it is located on the property's northwest corner. The half-acre project cost $1.9 million, which included paving a portion of the land for a museum parking lot. Following its completion, the Neon Museum officially opened to the general public on October 27, 2012, eliminating the old appointment-only system. Prior to the opening, the museum had averaged 1,000 monthly visitors by appointment. The years-long effort to open the museum was estimated to have cost $6 million. It employed 29 people and had another 30 volunteers. The museum received 60,461 visitors during 2013, on par with projections. Approximately 80 percent of the visitors were non-residents. In 2016, the museum's staff outgrew the office space in the La Concha structure and relocated to
the former Las Vegas City Hall building. The prior office space was removed to create a larger gift shop for the museum.
Expansion Hundreds of the museum's neon artifacts are kept in off-site storage facilities due to space limitations. The project required the purchase and demolition of the vacant L.A. Street Market, located directly south of the La Concha visitor center. With only about 30 percent of its collection on display, the Neon Museum sought to expand further. The structure was in need of costly repairs, but planning and fundraising were delayed as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic, prompting the Neon Museum to pull out of the deal in 2022. As of 2023, the museum received 200,000 visitors annually, with 30,000 turned away that year as a result of sold-out tours. The museum announced in 2024 that it would eventually move to two larger, nearby locations within
18b The Las Vegas Arts District. Plans to relocate there were dropped the following year, when the museum began considering three other downtown sites. ==Museum overview==