Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

Long before places like Dave & Buster’s, trampoline parks and indoor skydiving, there was Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills. The iconic arcade boasting vintage and newer games, coin-operated carnival attractions and other oddities, is closing its doors Sunday night.

The business first opened in the early 1980s, and is being forced to move due to new development plans at its longtime location on Orchard Lake and 14 Mile.

“I’m excited about it. We’ve always wanted to have things like private party rooms and this is giving us the opportunity to do it,” owner Jeremy Yagoda told WDIV. “We’ve been kind of pushed into the corner with all of this, but when life hands you lemons, you’ve got to make lemonade and make the best out of everything.”

Yagoda took over the museum following his father Marvin’s death in 2017. It continues to draw thousands of visitors each year with vintage attractions similar to the animatronic fortune-telling machine from the Tom Hank’s film “Big.”

“The oldest thing would be our Mutoscope from 1905. It was precursor to the movies. It was made by the Mutoscope company out of New York,” says Yagoda. “You put in a quarter and then you turn that handle while looking through there. There’s a big reel of pictures that spin around. It’s a movie. The precursor to the first movies.”

When word spread last year of Marvin’s possibly being demolished, an online petition received more than 52,000 signatures demanding it be saved. Farmington Hills planners instead sided with the plaza’s new owners, who will soon revamp the existing site with a Meijer and other stores.

Marvin's last weekend at 14 Mile and Orchard Lake runs through Sunday evening. Its new, larger location at 15 Mile and Orchard Lake is expected to open in late spring or early summer.

See the link below for more information.