Nethercutt Collection

This place is amazing*. Ok, show of hands - has anybody out there ever heard of this museum? Or of J.B. Nethercutt? I sure hadn't. Turns out J.B. Nethercutt and his aunt, Merle Nethercutt Norman, co-founded the Merle Norman cosmetics empire. Dick found this place a few months ago and couldn't wait to take me there today.

This fairly nondescript building in Sylmar holds a portion of one of the largest collections of restored "antique, vintage, black iron, and classic" automobiles in the world. And this is the smaller building.

We started our tour in the basement of the larger five story building across the street. You walk down a driveway into a room filled with fully restored, key-in-the-ignition, ready-to-drive vehicles, mechanical music players, and other treasures. (Please pardon the quality of the photos; flash photography wasn't allowed and the lighting was fairly dim, so the focus isn't the best.) The objects are wonderful, but the room is plain - white walls, red carpet, roll-up garage doors. You're impressed, but not overwhelmed. Then you walk upstairs to this . . . . . pure opulence. The main salon is styled after automobile showrooms from the '20's & '30's, but it made me think of European opera houses or 5-star hotels. Soaring ceilings, three types of marble, hand-cut crystal chandeliers (made by the same company that made the lights for the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in L.A.), detailed trim and wrought-iron stair railings. And cars. The collection has over 320 fabulous automobiles, all carefully restored to their original elegance. Rolls-Royce, Bugatti, Duesenberg, Mercedes, Pierce-Arrow, Dort, Franklin (the car, not one of my favorite bloggers) - if you can think of an elegant auto, you can bet there is at least one in this collection.

Up the stairs, past the reproducing piano, (different from a player piano - reproducing pianos can capture 90% of the original artist's expression and dynamics where player pianos only capture the notes) is the mezzanine level and the Nethercutt's enormous collection of car mascots and hood ornaments.

And then there's the fourth floor. Definitely my favorite. Cars are ok (sorry, Dick) but mechanical musical instruments? Very large, hand made, incredible theater-sized pipe organs and orchestrions and nickelodeons, phonograph players, electric banjo players, and more? Be still my heart. (Sorry there's not more detail in the photo. It was so dark, none of the other photos from this level are usable. Want to see more and actually hear the instruments play? Go here and click on "San Sylmar" at the top, then "Instruments".)

Our tour guide played five or six different instruments for us, including the theater organ whose pipes are spread throughout seven or eight different sections of the room's walls.

The newest addition to the museum is a fully restored, exactly as it came off the factory floor, 1912 Pullman Private Car once owned by Clara Baldwin Stocker, eldest daughter of "Lucky" Baldwin (founder of Santa Anita racetrack; Baldwin Hills is named after him, among other things). Clara's "California" car is the equivalent of owning a private jet today. The furnishings, wood paneling (Cuban mahogany for the family, quarter-sawn oak for the servants), and stained glass windows (for the family; the servants quarters had frosted glass) are amazing.

The museum also has a 1937 Canadian Pacific Royal Hudson locomotive on display.
And just to prove I was really there - here's the only picture of me that wasn't totally out of focus. We'll let Dick continue to believe it was the poor lighting and not his photography skills that are to blame.

*And it's all FREE. The museum and train exhibit are open to the public; reservations are required for the 2-hour, guided tour of the Collection. Monthly concerts are also free; reservations are required. We're definitely going back for the concerts.