EXHIBITS
Discover Burbank’s rich history by exploring each room in our complex.
Mary M. Howard Room
From our park entrance you’ll walk immediately into the Mary M. Howard Room where you’ll be greeted with a wonderful collection of vintage automobiles including a 1904 Franklin, 1949 Seagrave Fire Engine, and our 1923 Moreland Bus. Towards the rear of the room you’ll find Kong’s Speed Shop. The exhibit is aptly named, highlighting our community’s love for cars and speed, as well as the notable drag racers who hail from our fair city.
Memorabilia Room
Historical photographs dating back over 100 years, day-in-the-life vignettes, and fantastic displays from Warner Bros, Walt Disney and NBC grace what is likely one of the most popular rooms in our museum. The largest exhibit in this section is our Lockheed display which was installed by a team of Lockheed artists and designers. The items featured in the display cases were donated from the widow of Carl Squires, a Lockheed pioneer who passed away in 1967. He is buried in the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine at Valhalla Memorial Park here in Burbank.
Salon
Personal style is subjective, but there’s no question a person’s style is all about the details, regardless of the era. Our Salon room features ladies vintage dresses, hats, handbags, and accessories, the bulk of which date back to the early 1900s, with a few select pieces from the late 1800s. Also on display is an extensive doll collection — one of the first major collections donated to the museum.
Ray Sence Room
Ray R. Sence was an early Burbank pioneer, landowner, and businessman. The two-story Ray Sence addition was made possible by a grant from the Sence trust, joining together the original wings of the museum in 1993. The first-floor room, which is the first display accessed from our Lomita Street entrance, features day-in-the-life vignettes of an office, parlor, music room and bedroom. The centerpiece of the room is the bronze sculpture of a 32-mule team pulling a harvester.
Ranch Room
In this section of the museum, you can walk through a replica of a 1920s ranch house, its interior containing furnishings from that period including a working player piano. Though the many-roomed replica takes up more than a third of this section, there’s a lot more to see — farm equipment, including a 1948 tractor built in Burbank by the Adel Corporation; motion picture and photographic equipment; phonographs, and much more. One of the highlights in this room is the Jim Jeffries display. Jeffries, who won the Heavyweight Championship in 1899, lived and trained in Burbank after his retirement. He was inducted into the National Boxing Hall of Fame (NBHOF) in February 2018.
Collections Room
Located on the second floor of our main facility (and accessible via elevator or stairs) is our Collections Room which aptly features large collections of vintage cameras, musical instruments, medical equipment, toys and a display from the 2011 Burbank Rose Parade float.
Cunningham Room
Also located on the second floor of our main facility (and accessible via elevator or stairs) is the Cunningham Room which displays Native American artifacts from the late 1800s, paintings of early Burbank, opportunity quilts, various antiquities and an extensive toy train collection. The room also serves as the location for the museum’s special programs.
Mentzer House
The house was purchased by Mrs. Susan Martino in 1892 and sold to Mrs. Sarah Thompson in 1900. It was purchased in 1927 by Nora and Roy Mentzer for $7,500, which was a large sum of money considering its original purchase price of $500. Roy Mentzer died in 1951 but Nora stayed on until 1977 when it was scheduled to be torn down for the new Police/Fire building. It was given to the Burbank Historical Society by the City and was moved to its present location at a cost of $10,000.