Beginning operation in 1948, the building was originally intended to store aluminum from the nearby foundry. Instead, it became storage for large coils of army surplus wire. Enter the Fiorentino brothers: James, Antonio, Orlando, and Frank.
In the 1950s, the brothers founded Custom Door Sales, Inc., building and installing garage doors. It went through a number of partnerships and name changes until James retired and sold the business to his nephew in 1990. It moved to another location, and James made the warehouse his own.
He filled the walls and cases with a wide variety of objects, such as Black Forest cuckoo clocks; wood carvings; unique musical instruments; and rock spheres, which were polished and shaped by him. It was his vision to open the collection to the public as a museum, and was incorporated as a nonprofit museum in 2007.
