Musée Mécanique, Historic arcade museum at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, US.
Musée Mécanique is an arcade museum at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California, housing over 300 working mechanical entertainment devices from different decades. The collection includes antique pinball machines, music boxes, mechanical fortune tellers, and moving miniature scenes that all operate by hand with coins.
The collection started in the 1920s at the Playland amusement park and later moved to the basement of the Cliff House. In 2002, the machines found their current home at Pier 45 after the former building needed renovations.
The name nods to French art museums and brings a touch of elegance to the world of carnival machines. Visitors hear the clatter of pinball tables and the rattle of mechanical puppets while coins jingle through the hall.
The place opens daily from 10 AM to 8 PM and admission is free, while operating individual machines costs between one cent and one dollar. Bring a supply of quarters and smaller coins, as many devices use older coin systems.
A steam-powered motorcycle design from 1912 stands among the arcade machines and shows early experiments with alternative propulsion. In one corner, you can find delicate toothpick sculptures that inmates from San Quentin and Alcatraz created during their imprisonment.
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