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Playland At-The-Beach Tribute Museum to Close For Good on Monday

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Playland Not-At-The-Beach is a museum tribute to San Francisco's Playland At The Beach, and features games from the amusement park that visitors can still play.  (Sonja Hutson/KQED)

A museum tribute to the iconic San Francisco amusement park known as Playland At-The-Beach is open for the last time this weekend.

Playland was an amusement park at Ocean Beach that opened in the 1920's but closed 50 years later.

At its height, Playland At-The-Beach could draw some 50,000 people on the weekends.

Many of its artifacts were saved by volunteers and are displayed in a converted office building in El Cerrito.

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Tim Sauer owns and operates Playland Not-At-The-Beach with his husband. It's part museum, part arcade, all paying tribute to the original Playland.

Tim Sauer, who owns Playland Not-At-The-Beach with his husband, sits in his office there on the last weekend his "labor of love" will be open. (Sonja Hutson/KQED)

The museum is shutting down for good on Monday. The new owner of the building is demolishing it to make way for a housing development.

The Pinball Alley at Playland Not-At-The-Beach is one of the museums's most popular attractions. (Sonja Hutson/KQED)

"I think we're a reminder of the way people used to entertain themselves," says Sauer. "There's a lot more physical activity here. It's not a video game, where you're just using your thumbs to move things. And that's gone."

Linda Cuckovich and her two daughters, Evie and Rachel Luskin, went to Playland Not-At-The-Beach for the first time this weekend. (Sonja Hutson/KQED)

Linda Cuckovich thinks so too. She was at Playland playing Skeeball with her two daughters.

"This feels very of another time," says Cuckovich. "It’s probably not gonna be possible to play Skeeball with your kids on a Sunday."

Cuckovich and her daughters aren't the only one getting in on some last-minute fun. Sauer says he's seen five times as many people visiting Playland in the last few weeks.

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