Marsh’s Free Museum

Photo: Scott McLaughlin via Google Maps

Marsh’s Free Museum is part curio shop, part roadside attraction and entirely its own thing. It sits on Pacific Avenue in downtown Long Beach, and for generations travelers have wandered in to find shelves packed with antiques, oddities, vintage arcade machines and seashells, all presided over by its resident celebrity, Jake the Alligator Man.

This is not a hushed museum with velvet ropes. It is a family business that has been collecting for more than a century, and every corner holds something strange, funny or both. If you are spending any time on the Long Beach Peninsula, it is a rite of passage.

What You’ll See

• Jake the Alligator Man. Half man, half alligator and fully mummified, Jake sits in a glass case in the shop. The museum calls him a cult figure of Northwest culture: he has sold tens of thousands of postcards, inspired bumper stickers and turned up in the pages of the Weekly World News.
• Vintage arcade and coin operated machines. Old arcade games, mechanical peep shows, coin operated love testers and a wall sized orchestrion, an automated cabinet full of instruments, fill the shop.
• Curiosities and taxidermy. Look for a shrunken head, a two headed calf and a cyclops lamb among the oddities, plus plenty of taxidermy.
• Glass fishing floats. Bins and displays of Japanese glass fishing floats fill the store. The museum bills its collection as America’s largest.
• Antiques of every kind. Roulette wheels, vintage photographs, old life jackets, rifles, swords and farm equipment share the shelves with souvenirs and seashells.

The Story Behind It

The Marsh family story starts with Wellington Marsh Sr., who came to Washington from North Dakota and opened an ice cream and candy shop in Long Beach in 1921, later followed by a tavern. According to the family, Depression era bar patrons sometimes brought in items of interest to settle their tabs, and Marsh displayed them on the walls. Atlas Obscura adds that the crowds drawn to the 1930 wreck of the Admiral Benson nearby helped show him there was an audience for the unusual. He opened the museum itself in 1935.

Jake joined the collection when Wellington’s children bought him, in 1968 by the family’s account, from an antique dealer in Long Beach, California. His earliest known home was the Cliff House in San Francisco. More than 100 years after that first candy counter, the Marsh family still runs the place and has never stopped collecting.

Tips for Your Visit

• Take home a seashell. The museum says it gives away more than a million seashells every year.
• Bring some change. Many of the vintage machines are coin operated, and part of the fun is seeing them in action.
• Watch the museum’s website for Jake’s Birthday, an annual community celebration with live entertainment, local artists, vendors and the long running tradition of choosing Jake a bride.

Plan Your Visit

Address: 409 Pacific Ave S, Long Beach, WA 98631
Phone: 360.642.2188
Website: marshsfreemuseum.com
Hours and admission: Check the museum website for current days, hours, and admission before you visit.
Directions: View on Google Maps