Marvelous Music Machines of Virginia City

Step back in time when you visit the Nevada City Museum & Music Hall! As you enter the museum, you’ll first walk into the music hall, which features one of the largest publicly accessible music machine collections in the world. While the instruments are gorgeous inside and out, it is their fascinating history that keeps us coming back for more. When you visit the museum you’ll be met with an impressive variety of player pianos and other music machines on display

What are you waiting for? Join us as we dig into the incredible history of these marvelous music machines!

Montana’s Nevada City Museum & the Bovey Collection

The Nevada City Museum & Music Hall is about a 20-minute drive west of Ennis, Montana. Home to thousands of frontier-era antiques and over 100 buildings from the late 1800s-early 1900s, the collection is considered one of the largest collections of Old West artifacts outside of the Smithsonian!

This museum would not exist without Charles and Sue Bovey. Charles Bovey, a major advocate for preserving Montana’s heritage, had a love of collecting and the vision to preserve Virginia City’s history for future generations. Through multiple decades of collection, preservation, and restoration efforts, the site of the Nevada City Museum evolved and grew. 

Throughout the mid-20th century, many of the music machines that had once been so well loved were falling further out of popularity and often more into disrepair. With the change of times, many of the bars and hotels wanted to remove them. Charles Bovey became well known as someone who would “rescue” these machines, in turn, growing his collection of prized instruments. As he continued to collect these machines, his passion to preserve this piece of history grew.

Today, the Nevada City Music Hall houses one of the largest publicly accessible collections of antique music machines in the world.

The History of Player Pianos and Antique Music Machines

Once filling music halls, bars and brothels across the Old West, music machines of many varieties provided entertainment to the era’s pioneers. Much like the jukeboxes of the later part of the century, music machines played the hit tunes at an affordable price. They were a durable money-making device that was made to run on its own. All the bar owners had to do was collect the change!

Humans had been chasing the possibility of creating mechanical music for centuries. There is evidence to suggest ancient cultures including Greek, Islamic, and Ethiopian cultures designed and built a variety of musical automation devices, often powered by wind or water.

By the 1800s, hand-cranked gramophones and music boxes evolved into spring-wound motors and steam-powered calliopes before the world moved towards electrification. Some of the machines were retrofitted to accommodate this newly found electricity technology. Next came the transition to self-playing pianos, dance organs and automatic pipe organs.

What is a Player Piano?

A player piano is an instrument that plays music on its own without the need of a human musician. Self-playing pianos were popular around the turn of the 20th century and worked by reading music off of an interchangeable roll.

The Pianola and the Rise of the Player Piano

The first major iteration of the player piano was the pianola, which was a system played by two foot pedals. Anyone could sit at the piano bench, operate the foot pedals, and watch in amazement as the piano played any song on the music roll! This design later evolved into a piano powered by an electric suction pump. The electrification removed the need for foot pedals. These electrified pianos, commonly referred to as the automatic piano, self-playing piano, or player piano, also read music off of a roll and played songs without the need of human intervention. 

The music rolls are an integral part of the instrument. Music is transcribed on scrolls via a sequence of holes punched through paper. Sensors read the holes, or notes, in the paper scrolls and cause inner-working mechanisms to play the respective instrument. In the case of a player piano, the mechanisms cause the piano hammers to hit the piano strings and play any additional windpipes or other instruments within.

With the invention of the player piano and other automatic music machines, people could now hear and enjoy popular tunes of the times by simply exchanging the music rolls in their machine. This was profound in an era where people didn’t yet listen to music over the radio.

Music Machines in Montana

The music machine evolution hit Montana at a particularly interesting time. Montana was being settled by gold miners and homesteading frontiersmen and women around the time electrification of towns was occurring and the rail network was expanding. Many of the booming gold rush towns were therefore able to accommodate the latest electric music machines and the machines were able to easily be freighted in from major cities. Through these music machines, western settlers remained connected with the music trends of the day and were able to enjoy music during their leisure time. 

Featured Music Machines of the Nevada City Museum & Music Hall

Beyond the player piano, there were a variety of other types of music machines made during this era, including automated violins, organs, mandolins, cymbals and more. Each is unique and special. With the passage of time the ability to hear the instrument as it once sounded is fading, as is the number of instruments available for the public to experience.

We are so fortunate to have the Nevada City Music Hall available and publicly accessible. The Music Hall houses a variety of instruments, including some very beautiful pipe organs. In this article, we are featuring three incredible instruments you will find at the museum. These instruments include: the barrel organ, a hand-cranked instrument also commonly referred to as the monkey organ; the Regina Music Box, a beautiful instrument that is meant to sound like the chorus of strumming mandolins; and the Wurlitzer DX, an exquisite player piano!

Barrel Organ

This barrel piano was made by the Molinari Organ Company in Brooklyn, NY. These pianos were commonly used by organ grinders at the turn of the 20th century and were frequently referred to as “monkey organs” because it was common to see a monkey collecting tips in the area for the organ grinder. Often, people would listen to this type of organ music in public settings such as on sidewalks and at parks and fairs.

Fun Fact: The Nevada City Museum & Music Hall also houses the “Molinari Shop” which is a building of antique artifacts from the Molinari Organ Co when it went out of business in the late 1950s.

Regina Music Box

This music machine was made by the Regina Music Box Company in the early 1900s and was collected from Neihart, Montana. The sound of this machine imitates the chorus of strumming mandolins and was at the time very popular. This type of machine declined in popularity as automatic pianos became commonplace and were more reliable.

Wurlitzer DX

The Wurlitzer DX was collected from the Five Mile Inn in Butte, Montana. It was made in 1914 by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co in New York and underwent a major restoration in Colorado Springs in the early 2000s. Today, visitors can admire its artful stained glass and be mesmerized by the piano keys dancing before their eyes while taking in its cheerfully performed music.

Visiting Tips – Bring your quarters!

We sincerely hope you make it to the Music Hall to experience the wonders of these instruments firsthand! We cannot emphasize enough the uniqueness and historical significance of Nevada City Museum’s music machine collection. Not to mention, Virginia City, Montana promises a memorable vacation for visitors of all ages!

Nevada & Virginia City Travel Tips

• Seasonal Businesses & Attractions
  The Nevada City Museum & Music Hall, and most of the other attractions in the area, are open seasonally, typically from Memorial Day to Labor Day. 
• Travel Down Highway 287
  Virginia City is about 1.5 miles from Nevada City – if you travel to one you pretty much travel to the other. This area is full of things to do for people interested in trains, architecture, history, the gold rush, and local theater productions.
• Make it a Multi-Day Trip
  One thing is for sure – you will wish you had left more time to explore. Make a weekend or multi-day trip so you have enough time to explore the rest of the Alder Gulch. There are several excellent lodging accommodation options, as well as an RV park.

Some travel tips about the Music Hall and the Music Machines

• Approach the instruments with a bit of patience – sometimes they don’t all work, but Mike the piano technician and the rest of the museum staff do all they can to keep the instruments working as much as possible for your enjoyment. If an instrument is out of order, the instrument can still be admired as a beautiful antique. Many of the pieces have ornate stained glasswork, paintings and other interesting elements to observe.
• To truly enjoy the magic, take a moment, remember you are on vacation, and listen to the whole song. Grab your family members and do a little dance. It’s all very happy music.
• Remember to round up your quarters! The machines are retrofitted to accept quarter(s) as payment in exchange for their musical talents. No quarters, no problem, find one of the friendly museum staff who would be happy to exchange bills for quarters.
• Leave time to explore the rest of the museum as it is very interesting! There are many over 100 buildings to wander through, as well as 1000s of actual artifacts and antiques from the frontier era. Many weekends, the museum also hosts living history interpreters which makes the place come alive and feel as if you had traveled back in time.
• Although this article focuses on the instruments within the Music Hall, there are several other machines throughout Virginia City – check out the Gypsy Arcade, the Bale of Hay saloon and the Fairweather to see some other machines.

This is a Labor of Love by Many

Ultimately, we have Charles Bovey, his wife Sue, and his family to thank for the collection, as well as the many stewards of Virginia City and Nevada City, the Montana Heritage Commission, the many business proprietors, volunteers, and donors that keep the town running. We would like to extend a special thanks to Michael Edwards, the piano technician for the collection, for keeping the music machines alive and running for 20 years.