Nethercutt Museum

Two Buildings, Two Experiences

The Nethercutt spans two buildings across the street from each other. The Museum building welcomes drop-in visitors for self-guided tours through rows of pristine automobiles. The Collection building requires advance reservations for guided tours through an Art Deco penthouse that was once J.B. Nethercutt’s private residence.

Most visitors start at the Museum. You walk through decades of automotive history (Duesenbergs, Packards, Bugattis, Rolls-Royces) all restored to concours condition. These aren’t garage queens. The staff drives them regularly. Plaques describe each vehicle’s history and restoration story. Out back, a 1937 Royal Hudson steam locomotive sits next to a mahogany-paneled Pullman private car that belonged to Lucky Baldwin’s daughter.

The Collection tour is different. A docent guides small groups through the building where J.B. and Dorothy Nethercutt lived and displayed their most prized acquisitions. The Grand Salon recreates a 1920s luxury showroom with marble floors, mirrored walls, and crystal chandeliers. About 30 cars fill this space—vehicles that have won at Pebble Beach and Amelia Island.

The Music Room

The fourth floor changes the experience completely. You enter a 10,000-square-foot music room filled with mechanical instruments from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Player pianos, music boxes, orchestrions — devices that combined organs, drums, cymbals, and bells into pre-recorded performances before recorded sound existed.

The centerpiece is a Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ with 5,000 pipes. During tours, the docent plays this instrument. The sound fills the room. You hear what movie palace audiences heard in the 1920s. Some instruments get demonstrated too—a nickelodeon might play, or an orchestrion that looks like an ornate cabinet but sounds like a small orchestra.

The Nethercutt Story

J.B. Nethercutt dropped out of Caltech to help his aunt build Merle Norman Cosmetics into a nationwide business. In 1956, he bought two old cars needing restoration. One project became an 18-month, $65,000 endeavor. When that car won Best of Show at Pebble Beach in 1958, he was hooked.

Over the next 50 years, he acquired and restored cars that won at every major concours. Six Best of Show awards at Pebble Beach remains a record. In 1971, he built a ten-story Art Deco tower in Sylmar to house his growing collection and opened it to the public. When he died in 2004, his son Jack and daughter-in-law Helen took over. They’ve maintained the same standards—meticulous restoration, regular use, and public access.

The Restoration Shop

You can’t tour the 30,000-square-foot workshop, but docents explain the work. Every vehicle here gets maintained to concours standards. Some get driven thousands of miles yearly. Others compete at shows where judges inspect paint thickness with magnifying glasses and measure gap spacing between body panels. The workshop keeps everything running and show-ready.

Planning Your Visit

The Museum takes an hour for most visitors. You can spend longer reading every plaque and examining details. The Collection tour runs 90 minutes to two hours depending on the docent and group questions. Tours book fast, especially Saturdays. Call a week ahead for small groups, a month or two for parties over ten people.

Children under 10 can visit the Museum but not join Collection tours. The tours involve standing, stairs, and listening to detailed explanations that younger kids might find boring.