The Museum Club’s Next Chapter is Yet Unsung

Is this the year the music died?

The establishment’s latest operator bowed out of the business after four and a half years, but not before scheduling an auction to sell all the furnishings and memorabilia within the log-cabin walls of the “Zoo Club,” as it came to be called.

The Nov. 8 auction was canceled. Still, the threat that The Museum Club could lose its vintage decor had sparked a social media backlash against the bar operators.

What would The Museum Club be without its Western art, beer signs, musician publicity photos and abundant taxidermy — including a stuffed mountain lion, elk, deer and bison mounted in the rafters?

The Museum Club operators involved a group of investors, incorporated in 2021, as Zookeeper LLC, managed by Mike Thompson.

They had one year remaining on their lease with an option for six more years, said Martin Zanzucchi, who owns The Museum Club with his wife, Stacie.

Zookeeper needed to sell off The Museum Club furnishings to “cut its losses,” Thompson said in an Oct. 27 email to Flagstaff Heritage Preservation Officer Lauren Clementino.

Thompson declined to say why the bar had not been profitable, other than complaining that utility costs were outrageous.

Zookeeper earlier announced it planned to take The Museum Club name and open another bar, but that plan was scrapped, he said.

The Zanzucchis bought The Museum Club in 1978 and ran it until 2002. Business boomed in the late 1980s and early ‘90s when Garth Brooks sparked renewed interest in country music, Zanzucchi said.

Five different tenants operated the bar over the past 23 years, with a few closures along the way.

In June, the Zanzucchis listed the 1.4-acre property and building for sale for $2.3 million via da Vinci Real Estate. The asking price was recently lowered to $2.2 million.

A potential property sale raised questions about the Zoo Club’s future. Could The Museum Club be torn down and redeveloped?

“We should all put that fear to rest,” Zanzucchi said. “The building will stand and that will never happen. It just needs to get the right user in here. It’s great that there are a lot of people in Flagstaff, young and old, who have this connection to this place, and they want to see it survive. It’s part of their life, too. It’s not going anywhere.”

Zanzucchi said the Museum Club is still viable as a bar. The right buyer could make it work by adding a craft brewery and kitchen to the back of the building, he said. “I think that would give The Museum Club success to run for another 40 years.”

Zanzucchi bought The Museum Club’s Class 6 liquor license, business name and remaining furnishings from Zookeeper LLC to keep the historic business intact. However, Thompson sold an 1880s vintage back bar, which was removed from a back corner of the building.

Zanzucchi said another option for the building would be a trading post. Dean Eldredge opened The Museum Club in 1931 as a trading post and taxidermy museum. “We just need to get somebody in here that wants to put the energy into it and fix it up, open the doors for another use.”

Zanzucchi operated bars in Flagstaff for 40 years, including the former JD’s, a country nightclub at Steves Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue (Route 66).

Starlite Lanes owner Ron Getto is skeptical about whether the historic log building next to his bowling alley can survive as a bar. “I think the community is going to lose The Museum Club,” he said.

Getto, who worked two decades on Wall Street before buying Starlite Lanes in 2010, said he expects the old saloon will be torn down and possibly replaced with a four-story hotel or housing with ground-floor retail.

The prospect of redevelopment has drawn the attention of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Arizona Preservation Foundation. The Museum Club is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but that does not provide protection from demolishing the building, said Clementino, the city’s preservation officer.

Any major exterior alterations or demolition would require a cultural resource study and prior approval from the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission, she said.

David Zimmerman of the Arizona Preservation Foundation said the required Historic American Building Survey simply means a developer could “document and then destroy” the building.

The National Register designation does provide grants and tax breaks for listed buildings, said Rhys Martin, Preserve Route 66 manager for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and president of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association.

Arizona and seven other states will celebrate the Centennial of Route 66 next year. The Museum Club is one of Flagstaff’s most prominent Mother Road attractions.

“I just hope the right person comes along that is able to invest in The Museum Club and understands it’s going to take a while to recoup that investment,” he said. “But the history is important. It’s worth saving. Route 66 as a whole isn’t just about what’s happened over the last 100 years. It’s about what it’s going to be in five or 10 years from now.”

If redevelopment occurs, the Museum Club site is zoned for highway commercial uses. A new building could have a maximum height of 60 feet. A mixed-use development with multifamily residential and first floor retail would require a conditional use permit. About 40 dwelling units could be allowed on the 1.4-acre site, said Elsa Erling, Flagstaff associate planner. FBN

By Peter Corbett, FBN

Courtesy Photo: The Museum Club originally opened in 1931 as a trading post and taxidermy museum.