Sunday at Lonnie Hammargren’s House
Who is Lonnie Hammargren?
He is a former brain surgeon, and former Nevada Lieutenant Governor, and an eccentric packrat. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Lonnie is well known in Vegas as perhaps one of the most prolific collectors of Las Vegas memorabilia on the planet, and most prolific collector of just about everything else on the planet, including Evil Keneival and Howard Hughes memorabilia.
His house is like the Neon Boneyard on acid.
He typically opens his house up for 4 hours per year to the general public at 4318 Ridgecrest Drive.
The house is actually a collection of 3 houses, each connected to each other. Apparently, Lonnie’s neighbors hated him for being a pathological packrat … so he bought their houses and stuffed a bunch of stuff into those as well.
A win-win situation.
I went early and got to speak to him personally on his front porch briefly, and got a few pictures of myself with him. Why? So I can add them to my collection of obscure photographs.
There was also food and live music in his backyard near the pool.
Lonnie was known for being a brain surgeon that refused to deal with insurance companies in his practice. His going rate was $500 per visit, and if you had insurance, it was up to you to file your own stuff.
This guy is a real Howard Hughes, except that he bathes, and is still extremely nice … even in his old age.
I came away from his home with about 800 photos, and it is going to take me a long time to sift through them.
They will eventually be here:
