American Treasure Tour facts for kids
Visitors take a tram ride through the American Treasure Tour, located in Oaks, PA
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| Location | Oaks, Pennsylvania |
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The American Treasure Tour is a super cool place to visit in Oaks, Pennsylvania. It opened in 2010 and lets you explore a huge private collection of amazing things! Imagine seeing one of the world's biggest collections of automatic music machines, like player pianos and huge band organs. You'll also find classic cars, circus art, dolls, and tons of other fun stuff from popular culture. It's located near Valley Forge National Historical Park.
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Where the Treasure Began
This amazing collection is housed in a really big building in Oaks, Pennsylvania. This building used to be a factory where B.F. Goodrich made tires! It opened way back in 1937 and made tires until 1986. After that, the building got a whole new life.
Today, the first floor has businesses like Arnold's Family Fun Center. But most of the second floor is where the American Treasure Tour's awesome collection lives! The whole building is huge, about 1.2 million square feet. The American Treasure Tour itself takes up 100,000 square feet, which is about the size of a really big store.
What You'll See Inside
The American Treasure Tour displays a private collection owned by one person who likes to stay anonymous. This means they don't want their name shared. The collection is packed with all sorts of interesting items!
You can see things like:
- Huge carousel band organs
- Calliopes (steam organs)
- Nickelodeons (old-fashioned music machines)
- Movie posters and celebrity photos
- Old vinyl records
- Edison cylinder players (early record players)
- Antique and modern animated store displays
- Circus and clown art
- Pedal cars
- Model airplanes
- And lots of classic cars!
There's also a special collection of music boxes. These are on loan from the Music Box Society International (MBSI). This group loves automatic music, and they've loaned over a hundred music boxes to the American Treasure Tour. Many of these are on display and even played for visitors!
How to Explore the Tour
The tour is split into two main parts: The Music Room and The Toy Box. You'll do a little walking in the Music Room, and then you get to ride a tram through The Toy Box!
The Music Room: A Symphony of Sounds
In The Music Room, the walls are covered with old record albums, movie posters, and celebrity pictures. This is where you'll find most of the nickelodeons, dolls, dollhouses, and the cool MBSI music boxes.
Guides use iPads to turn on different music machines and show you videos. You'll hear many machines play and learn fun stories about when they were popular. There are over 150 automatic music machines here!
Some of the cool machines you might see include:
- Two Wurlitzer Harps
- Two Wurlitzer IX Electric Pianos (one has cool red keys!)
- The Wurlitzer LX with a special 'wonder light' on top
- The Mills Violano-Virtuoso DeLuxe, which has two violins and a piano inside
- The Wurlitzer Mandolin PianOrchestra Style 12, with a peacock-shaped 'wonder light'
- The D.C. Ramey Piano Company Banjo Orchestra, which sounds like an old banjo band.
- The music box collection has examples from companies like Baker, Mira, and Regina. These were made around the year 1900 in the U.S. and Europe.
- You can also see a Link Trainer. This was an early flight simulator that used technology similar to nickelodeons!
The Toy Box: A World of Wonders
The Toy Box is the biggest part of the American Treasure Tour. You get to ride in an electric tram through long lanes. On both sides, and even hanging from the ceiling, you'll see an amazing mix of American treasures!
Your guide will tell you about all the items as you ride. You'll spot:
- Model airplanes
- Classic cars
- More automatic musical instruments
- Original artwork
- Movie items and Disney collectibles
- Stuffed animals
- Animated store displays
- Motorcycles
- And bright neon signs!
Some of the highlights in The Toy Box are:
- Three very rare Wurlitzer #165 band organs (only about 11 or 12 exist!)
- The only known Wurlitzer #175 band organ
- "The Emperor" Th. Mortier Dance Hall Organ, which is enormous!
- "Sadie Mae" Gavioli & Cie. band organ
- "The Mammoth" Wurlitzer Military Band Organ
- A giant shoe that was used for a promotion in New York City!
- One of Eric Staller's unique Conference Bikes
- A castle made entirely of popsicle sticks that won a Guinness World Record in 2009!
- Many classic cars, like a 1905 Franklin, two Sears Motorbuggies, two 1956 Ford Thunderbirds, a 1954 Pennant Blue Corvette, a 1922 Stanley Steamer, and over sixty other cool cars!
The anonymous owner of this huge collection (except for the music boxes from MBSI) keeps adding new items all the time. So, every time you visit, you might see something new and exciting!
