National Automobile Museum

Automobile Museum Built On The Collection Of Casino Founder William F. Harrah; About 200 Cars On Display · Reno, Nevada

The National Automobile Museum in downtown Reno is one of the best-known car museums in the United States, built on what remained of the enormous collection gathered by William F. Harrah, the founder of Harrah's casinos. Harrah bought, restored and displayed cars on a scale few private collectors ever tried, and by the 1970s his collection is often described as holding more than 1,400 vehicles. After his death in 1978 most of it was sold, and part of it, with other gifts, became the core of this museum, which opened in 1989 on the south bank of the Truckee River. About 200 cars are on display, from early steam and electric carriages to the Thomas Flyer that won the 1908 New York to Paris race, cars once owned by film and music stars, and sleek postwar designs. Most stand in four galleries dressed as streets of their era, with shopfronts, lamp posts and paving, which makes the museum as good for families as for enthusiasts. Allow two to three hours; it is a short walk from the Reno Arch.

10 South Lake Street, Reno, Nevada, 89501, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: open daily, roughly 9:30 am to 5:30 pm Monday to Saturday and shorter hours on Sundays, around 10 am to 4 pm, with last admission some 30 to 60 minutes before closing, and closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The traps that ruin a visit are arriving an hour before closing and rushing four galleries, coming on a holiday when it is closed, missing the last theatre show of the day, and planning the trip around one star car that is out on loan or in restoration. Confirm current times before relying on them.

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