Earlier in the year we visited the Nethercutt Museum in Sylmar, CA. The museum has two buildings and our first trip was to the “free” museum that is full of old cars collected by J.B. Nethercutt. If you missed my first post, click on the link above if you’re so inspired.
We learned that the other building requires a reservation for $20 and it’s a guided tour. It boasted musical instruments so we were further intrigued. We learned so much that day! This time I wrote up some notes so that I wouldn’t forget what I learned.
J.B. Nethercutt was born in South Bend, IN. When he was 9 his mother died and he was sent to Santa Monica to be raised by his Aunt Merle Nethercutt Norman. She founded Merle Norman cosmetics by making cosmetics on her stove in the 1920s. J.B. worked as a peddler and delivered her products. You will see his delivery car in the photo galleries below. Merle opened her first store in 1931 in Santa Monica at 2525 Main Street. It eventually was used as the headquarters and is now a historic landmark. J.B. eventually inherited the business and came into a lot of wealth. This is how he was able to purchase and restore all the beautiful cars and other artifacts in this museum.
The Nethercutt Collection was the first building to house J.B.’s cars. Our guide first went there in 1969 when it was just a warehouse. They began refurbishing the building in 1970 but the completion was delayed by the Sylmar earthquake in 1971. This was also the first earthquake that I experienced as a child. Our guide said the museum opened in 1973 or 1974.
The tour begins at the garage level where there are several restored antique cars. One of the many music boxes was playing as we entered.
Next was the first floor called the showroom. You walk up the steps outside and there is another music box in the entryway.
The showroom is rather ornate with marble floors and pillars, beautiful ceilings and chandeliers. J.B. entered many car shows and several of his cars won best of show, primarily at Pebble Beach Concour D’Elegance in northern CA. His first car to win best of show is on this floor along with four other cars that won best of show. Click on any photo to see the gallery and to read captions.
J.B. and his wife wanted to display functional fine art, meaning the art would consist of items that worked. The cars had to be in working order as well as the many music boxes throughout the museum. The next gallery is a sampling of what we saw on the second floor: many music boxes, display cases of hood ornaments and views of the showroom below.
There is a silver and white gold piece on the second floor in front of the stairwell leading up to the third floor. It was in the Cliff House in San Francisco, was rescued after a fire and was restored. It commemorates the opening of the Panama Canal and has many details which depict the spirit of the early West. It is the only piece in the museum that isn’t “functional”.
The third floor consists primarily of very large music boxes and our guide played samples from several of them for us. The dining room was used to host Friday night dinners when the Nethercutts were alive. It’s a Louis XV style dining room complete with one-armed chairs to accommodate men with swords as shown by the chair our guide pulled out that has no left arm rest. Above the table is a chandelier that was from French royalty. They don’t know where it came from but they know it’s royalty because of the ostrich plumes at the top. At the end of our tour the organ in the center played themes from John Williams’ movie compositions like Indiana Jones, Star Wars and E.T. On our way down the stairwell there were many Merle Norman advertising posters. I included one in the gallery below.
It was a great tour and I highly recommend it. It helped that our guide had been volunteering there for so long. He was a font of knowledge. Click on the link for more information or to book a tour.
Note: the cover photo is the “free” museum. The other museum that is represented here is across the street.
travels with toby 