Charles Brown (yes, Charlie Brown) was a local entrepreneur who made his fortune running a gas lamp business. He spent his money on unusual things, the most notable being a collection of antique mechanical musical instruments, like player pianos and band organs.
Also notable is how he housed his collection, building an elaborate mansion decorated in a Bavarian style. As you'll soon see, this theme was carried out to its full extent!
Situated above the Allegheny River, this is the view from the living room.
I love old music machines like this, especially the moment when they "come to life."
This is just another example of the intricate detailing.
The time period of the machines ranges greatly, with the one below being from the 19th century.
When Brown died in 1999, he willed that his collection become a museum, and the house opened for tours in 2004.
Here's a type of "juke box" for those old phonograph canisters. As you can tell, I'm quite knowledgeable about these things.
An observatory? Sure, why not!
There are band organs too, like you often find on a carousel.
This one supposedly came from West View Park, my neighborhood amusement park that closed in 1977. It's really loud when it's in a small room like this; these machines were meant to be heard from hundreds of feet away!
One of the house's most impressive features is its myriad of secret passageways, such as this one behind a tapestry that opens to reveal a cave-themed hallway!
"Perry" is very excited in this clip.
The "purpose" of the caves is to serve as a passageway to the wine cellar.
12 comments:
Some people have just toooo much extra money to spend, don't you think?? ;-) What a unique museum, filled with all of these musical treasures. Andrew, thank you for sharing your day at the Bayernhof Music Museum - I never knew about this place, and enjoyed learning about it and seeing your pictures.
Andrew, you really MUST see 'House on the Rock,' since you like these musical masterpieces. 'House on the Rock' has many, though it is a very strange setting - but worth seeing for it's bizarre-ness.
Interesting post!
There's no reason why you would know about this place, Sue - I don't think most people in Pittsburgh even know it exists! Hopefully I'll get to see House on the Rock someday.
Ooooh, I love these kind of music machines! Knott's Berry Farm used to have quite a collection of music machines and other vintage mechanical wonders. I believe most are gone now. Some disappeared at the time the park was sold to Cedar Fair and others were sold off in the 2017 Knott's auction. They even used to have one of those "jukebox type" machines, which played the phonograph cylinders, and also a "mechanical bird" in a cage!
Thanks for another great trip report, Andrew! I'm glad to see that a place like this exists and that someone is preserving this kind of history. I hope they are able to stay in business for many years to come!
That's cool there's a connection to Knott's, TokyoMagic! I can't see them wanting to spend the money to maintain those for daily operation, but I think Disneyland still has a few. Thanks for the nice comment.
That was part of Knott's management's excuse for not keeping the machines. They said that it was too expensive to custom make the replacement parts. They also said that the people who knew how to repair the machines had either retired or passed away....or both. I'm assuming the Bayernhof Museum has a person or people, who are knowledgeable in how to repair these precious antiques.
Hey.....I just had a thought. The Bayernhof Museum needs a Bayern Kurve flat ride in it's backyard! In it's basement? Somewhere!!!
If you really want to, I think you can probably find someone willing to maintain an antique no matter how old it is, but of course it'll get more expensive over time.
And yeah, I did think of that name connection. Nothing says quaint old Bavaria like one of the noisiest amusement rides ever with a blaring horn! ;-)
Never quite understood why that ride had that horn. Maybe the backstory was you were riding an out-of-control bobsled onto a ferryboat about to pull away from the dock.
I love the mechanical bird! I've seen photos of the one that inspired Walt's AA fixation and have imagined how they might look and sound, but I've never seen one in person. Your video finally made it "real" for me.
Oh man, Chuck, you seriously leave the best comments! I'm guessing you rode the Cedar Point Bayern Kurve?
Those birds are definitely similar to the one that Walt saw. I didn't think of that at all!
The only Bayern Kurve I remember riding was at Cedar Point, and it must have been during its last year of operation in 1984. I hadn't been in 6 years, and at 15 I was finally brave enough to ride things that had either scared me too badly in '78 or that I had been too small to ride in the early '70s. That Cedar Point trip was three days long and we stayed at the park's campground, so we had multiple opportunities to ride it.
I also have pretty vivid memories of being three or four years old and watching my dad, uncle, and oldest cousin ride it. I remember the horn startling me and covering my ears. I honestly hadn't thought about any of that for years until you started your blog. Thanks for helping bring that back to the surface.
Wow, thanks for that memory, Chuck. Three days at Cedar Point in 1984... sign me up!
My parents also brought the ski boat, so we spent one morning water-skiing on Sandusky Bay, then took the boat out onto Lake Erie and up to Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island in an attempt to vivt a couple of my dad's fraternity brothers who had houses on the island. Man, was the lake rough, especially in a 19-foot tri-hull. Roughest seas we ever had that boat in, and it was the only time I ever thought we were going to swamp.
Once we got up to Put-in-Bay, there was no place in the bay to put in - the docks were completely full and there were probably 20 boats bobbing in the harbor. We ended up turning around and going back to Cedar Point for the afternoon and evening.
Cedar Point in the evening had such a neat feel to it back then. It wasn't too crowded, and there was a nice, cool breeze off the lake. The Frontier Lift hadn't been torn out yet, and riding that at night out over the lagoons, looking down and seeing the burning paddlewheeler on the Western Cruise and hearing the roller coasters off in the distance as you cruised on into Frontier Town was just the best.
Night was the best time to ride Earthquake! and the Pirate Ride, both refugees from Freedomland. Your eyes were better adjusted to the dark and you could see a lot more details. The crowds were smaller, too, so you could get off, run back around to the front of the line, and get back on in usually less than a minute.
I remember that was the trip when I first noticed how many cute girls worked at Cedar Point, and I was stunned by how many talked to me like I wasn't some sort of dork, which was very different from what I was used to at school. I still remember talking to one girl in particular one evening (working Bayern Kurve, I think) who asked me about my Air Force Academy sweatshirt and wondered if I was a cadet. I can still remember what she looked like. She was very nice and very pretty in a very wholesome way. Funny to think she's in her late '50s now; she's trapped in my mind at about 20.
I really enjoyed reading your descriptive memories from a different era of the park, Chuck. Thanks for typing that all up, especially when very few will see it. It sounds like you had a complete vacation. I'm hoping to work at Cedar Point for the summer in two years; I understand that you work long hours, but I'd like to have that experience of living at an iconic park. Thanks so much again for the awesome comment!
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