Valley Relics Museum
DETAILS:
Location: 7900 Balboa Blvd. Lake Balboa, CA 91406 (Hangar C 3 & 4)
(Entrance on Stagg St.)Hours of Operation: Thursday - Saturday: 11AM to 4PM. Sunday: 11AM to 3PM
Parking: Free parking lot in front of museum
Cost: $10 Adults / $8 Seniors / Children under 10 are free
Time Commitment: One hour should be plenty.
Nobody wants to live in the valley. This has always been the prevailing consensus for most of us living in Los Angeles “proper”. In a city that seems to be one sprawling suburb, you can’t get any more suburban than the San Fernando Valley. But in recent years, a definite revitalization has been occurring to the area that has made it, dare I say, a new hot spot for restaurants, bars, and shopping. The amazing thing is, this isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon. All it takes is one visit to the Valley Relics Museum in Lake Balboa (near Van Nuys Airport) to realize that the other side of the hill has always had a vibrant history, beckoning patrons from one generation to the next in technicolor neon that would make Las Vegas proud.
The Valley Relics Museum is the brainchild of Tommy Gelinas who first opened the Museum in 2013 in Chatsworth. But his accumulation of valley artifacts grew so vast, a larger space was soon needed, prompting the museum to move to its current location in 2018. To say the museum’s collection is a random hodgepodge would be an understatement. In one corner stand’s Jan Brady’s door from The Brady Bunch set. Another wall is adorned with aviation memorabilia thanks to the valley’s historic connection with the Lockheed Corporation. If you look up, you’ll see a squadron of BMX bikes hanging from the rafters. And of course, there’s the obligatory array of wardrobe and props from various film & TV projects that have called the valley home. It’s a dizzying potpourri of mementos in the very best sense. But amongst all this amazingness, the real highlight of the museum is its collection of signage from a bygone era. Both nostalgic and timeless, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine any of these signs hanging from a storefront today thanks to the retro-craze that seems so prevalent now. To see them in person is to know they will forever be splendid as long as people like Tommy Gelinas have anything to say about it.
The museum is split up into three main rooms. You’ll enter the gift shop first to pay for admission and peruse their merchandise. Be forewarned that you’ll strongly consider buying a t-shirt or two since the logos they bear of defunct valley businesses are pretty eye-catching and they contribute to keeping the museum open, so have your credit card ready. Then you’ll enter the first of two hangers where the actual collection resides. The first hanger is where the bulk of the collection lives and where you’ll spend the most time in. When you’re ready, you can proceed to the museum’s piece de resistance in the second hanger. Saving the best for last, the museum’s most impressive (and largest) signs are displayed in this shrine of neon, bathing you in a hue of radiant red as you continue to admire the sights around you, your mouth slightly agape in delight.
RESOURCES:
Valley Relics Museum page.
