Musée Mécanique Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Musée Mécanique

Entrance to the Musée Mécanique at Pier 45, Shed A
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Location	San Francisco, California
Visitors	100,000+ (2002)
Public transit access	Jefferson & Taylor

The Musée Mécanique is a fun, interactive museum in San Francisco, California. It's located at Fisherman's Wharf. The name means "Mechanical Museum" in French. This museum has a huge collection of old-fashioned arcade games. You can play many of these games from the 20th century.

It has over 300 mechanical machines. This makes it one of the biggest private collections in the world. It's a great place to see how people had fun before modern video games.

Discover the Museum's Past
- Moving to Fisherman's Wharf
- Musée Mécanique Today
Explore the Collection
Gallery
See also

Discover the Museum's Past

The museum's story began with Ed Zelinsky. He started collecting these games when he was only 11 years old. His collection was first shown in the 1920s at a place called Playland.

In 1972, Playland closed down. The Musée Mécanique then became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The museum moved into the basement of Cliff House. This was just a short distance from the old Playland site. Ed's son, Dan Zelinsky, later helped take care of the machines.

The museum has even been in movies and TV shows! It was featured in the 2001 film The Princess Diaries. It also appeared in a 2011 episode of the Japanese TV show GameCenter CX.

Moving to Fisherman's Wharf

In 2002, the Cliff House building needed repairs. So, the National Park Service decided to move the Musée Mécanique. It was a temporary move to Fisherman's Wharf. A lot of money was spent to help the museum move.

This move made some San Francisco locals upset. They created an online petition against it. Over 12,000 people signed it. Many thought there wasn't enough money for the move. People felt a strong connection to the museum's history at Playland. They didn't know the museum was a business. Some even tried to donate money to keep it at Cliff House.

Despite the protests, museum manager Dan Zelinsky was excited. He understood why people loved the old place. He said, "You have to understand that people grew up with these kind of machines... To the generation before, these were the video games." He added that visitors feel like they are "going back in time." The museum was supposed to return to Cliff House in 2004. But it has stayed at Fisherman's Wharf ever since.

Musée Mécanique Today

Today, the Musée Mécanique is still owned and run by Dan Zelinsky. The old machines need a lot of care. Some have been fully repaired to work like new. More than 100,000 people visit the museum every year. You can enter for free, but you pay a small fee to play each game.

In 2011, U.S. News & World Report named it one of the top three "Things to Do in San Francisco." SF Weekly called it the "Best Old-School Arcade" that same year.

The museum faced a scare on May 23, 2020. A fire broke out at Fisherman's Wharf. It destroyed a warehouse nearby. Luckily, firefighters put out the fire before it reached the museum.

Explore the Collection

The museum has over 300 mechanical games and fun devices. These include music boxes and coin-operated fortune teller machines. You can also find Mutoscopes, video games, and player pianos. There are photo booths, dioramas, and pinball machines too. About 200 of these machines are on display at the museum's current spot.

The museum has many rare and old items. In the middle, there is a big diorama of a traveling carnival. It has a Ferris wheel and other rides. The museum also owns what might be the only steam-powered motorcycle in the world. It was built in Sacramento in 1912.

Another special piece is the Royal Court diorama. It shows couples ballroom dancing. This diorama was featured in the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. You might also see Laffing Sal. She is a 6-foot-tall laughing automaton that some people find "famously creepy." The museum also has a collection of amazing machines made from toothpicks by prisoners at San Quentin.