The One-Of-A-Kind Historic Pennsylvania Museum With A Massive Collection Of Eclectic Americana

By its own admittance, the American Treasure Tour Museum in Oaks, Pennsylvania is a "non-museum museum." Curiosity cabinet might be closer to the truth — at least if that cabinet were the size of two football fields. At 100,000-square-feet, the museum covers a vast amount of territory in the former B.F. Goodrich tire factory. And that may not even be enough space for the massive collection on display, which all but bursts the seams with a century-plus of Americana, be it dozens of antique cars and motorcycles, the largest collection of mechanical music in the country, 1,400 Raggedy Anne and Andy dolls, 378 telephones, the largest Slinky ever made, and even a life-sized replica of the Ark of the Covenant from the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark." As one tour guide put it, "If you can dream it, it is here."

The American Treasure Tour Museum is also a literal collection of one anonymous person, simply known as "the collector," who's been quietly amassing it for 60 years. In fact, it was kept almost entirely under wraps until 2011, when the museum founders convinced the collector to open it to the public, at first for group and custom tours and to see what happened. Success followed quickly, and the museum eventually opened for individual tours and weekends. Today, it's open Friday to Sunday for general admission. The $18 fee for adults comes with two self-guided tours and a guided tram ride through much of the collection. 

Quirky and fun are the best words to describe this unique collection. In fact, that's entirely by design, as the collector's north star for selecting the items is that they have to be happy. And the American Treasure Tour Museum delivers plenty of that, warmed significantly by more than a century of nostalgia. There's a working Chuck E. Cheese animatronic band, Enchanted Colonial Village holiday display from the former Lit Brothers department store in Philadelphia, large-sized jack-in-the-box from Kay Bee Toys, statue of the Pep Boys, 20-foot Gumby, 300 hundred model airplanes hanging from the ceiling, and crystal chandelier from Philadelphia's historic Warwick Hotel in Rittenhouse Square, one of Pennsylvania's superb destinations for dining, shopping, and strolling — and these are a tiny fraction of the whole.

But it's the music room with more than 150 mechanized music machines that arguably steals the show. A good example is the Violano Virtuoso from the 1909 Seattle Expo, containing two violins and a piano. Another is the 1920 Wurlitzer IX "Red Key Electrical Piano," and it sits near others like the D.C. Ramey Banjo Orchestra and The Sextrola Model B. Music boxes, like the 1875 Baker Overture Music Box and Seth-Thomas grandfather clock with Regina music box, add more tunes to the air. 

The American Treasure Tour Museum also puts you within easy reach of this nearby Pennsylvania town named the state's most underrated and the little Pennsylvania city that reinvented itself as America's Christmas capital.