The Neon Museum and La Concha Lobby

The Neon Museum at 770 Las Vegas Boulevard North in Las Vegas, Nevada, preserves the signs that defined the city's visual identity from roughly the 1930s through the 1990s. Its visitor center is the lobby of the La Concha Motel, a shell-shaped structure designed in 1961 by Paul Revere Williams, one of the most prominent African American architects in the United States, whose work included Southern California landmarks. The motel stood on the Strip until it was moved in sections to the museum site in 2006 and restored as the entrance and gift shop. Behind it lies the Neon Boneyard, an outdoor collection of historic signs from vanished or remodeled properties such as the Stardust, the Sahara, the Golden Nugget and other casinos, motels and local businesses, many donated by the sign company Young Electric Sign Company. The signs are displayed as outdoor sculpture, some restored and some left in the condition they were retired, which lets visitors see the metal, bulbs and neon tubing up close. Guided tours are the main way to visit, with guides explaining the design history, the engineers and artists involved, and the fates of the casinos the signs once advertised. The museum also operates a gallery of restored signs that are lit in the evening, adding a dimension that the daytime boneyard lacks, and a sign restoration program continues to bring selected pieces back to working order. The curatorial approach is thematic and narrative rather than strictly chronological, tracing sign design from early incandescent displays through the neon and Googie-influenced forms of the postwar boom. The site sits just north of downtown, near Fremont Street and the Arts District, and the combination of mid-century architecture and signage makes it one of the most popular heritage stops in the city.