Musée Mécanique

The Musée Mécanique is the world’s largest privately owned penny arcade museum with over 300 20th-century penny arcade games.

The collection was originally curated by Ed Zelinsky who purchased a large stake of penny arcades from collector and Playland-at-the-Beach owner George Whitney merging it with his own. Whitney inherited his collection of antique penny arcades from PT Barnum – one of the founders of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. During the Great Depression of the 20s and 30’s, Whitney would consolidate many of the arcades and locations at Playland from operators looking to get out of the amusement business.

Ed Zelinsky would eventually settle his collection San Fransisco famous Cliffhouse from the 1970’s up until 2002 after the national parks service took over renovations to the Cliffhouse. In 2002 with the help of the National Parks service, the location at Fisherman’s Wharf Pier 45 was found. Ed Zelinsky passed away in 2004 and his son Dan Zelinsky inherited the arcade which he helped his father maintain since the 1970’s.