The Musical Memories Museum is the personal collection of Ray Scheffy. It's main focus is on automated instruments.....in other words.....instruments that play themselves withou needing to be pumped with pedals like a player piano.) Many of these intruments are coin operated - or "Nickelodeons" - later nicknamed "Juke Boxes", once traditional records were invented. It is the third largest viewable colletion of such instruments in the country, based on AMICA records (Automated Musical Insrument Collectors Association).

As many of these items date back to the 1800's - and a few into the 1700's; there were no CD's, Cassettes, 8-Tracks, - no, there were not even vinyl or slate record discs to hold the music. Early machines used wooden drums with small "nails" in them; which then struck and played a comb. As engineering progressed, the paper roll replaced the wooden drums, and vacuum lines transferred the notes to the flutes, drums, pipes, and strings.

Keep in mind, that in the 1800's - taking your wife into town on a horse drawn buckboard, possibly for a rare dinner out.......and hearing a wooden cabinet play a tune with the sensitivity and finesse of a 3 or 4 piece band, was absoulutely astonishing. Some of these Nickelodeons have 2, 3, 4, and even 5 different instruments being played in harmony.

Ray Scheffy started collecting his trinkets as early as the 1940's while still in high school, and started rebuilding traditional player pianos in the early 60's. By the 1990's, the collection had outgrown his basement, so he built a 3000 sq ft addtion to his home to house the over 55 instruments, 50 antique Radios, early televisions and many other items of curiosity. A guided personal tour.....with explainations and demonstrations of many of the instruments........can take 2 hours or more - depending on ones interest level.