An Ever-Growing Home Dedicated to Classics
by David Shultz, CCCA President and CCCA Museum Trustee
The Classic Car Club of America Museum was founded nearly 30 years ago by CCCA members who believed a museum should be established to perpetuate CCCA Full Classic® motorcars (as defined by the club) for generations to come. The campus of the 90-acre Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, MI, was suggested as the site. The museum’s mission statement was straightforward enough: “Dedicated to the discovery, procurement and preservation of automobilia, notable automobiles, artifacts and documents from the Classic Era.” Then and today, the CCCA Museum is the only museum dedicated solely to the Classic motorcar. Fast forward to today, and it’s obvious the museum’s founders and supporters made the right choice.
The CCCA Museum collections are housed in a rebuilt 1890s barn relocated to the Gilmore campus. (The red barn museum buildings have become a trademark of the Gilmore campus.) Cars began arriving as soon as the building was ready. Over the years, CCCA members have stepped up and provided funds for a CCCA Library as well as new additions and automotive galleries. Other members have donated libraries of books and a world-class collection of radiator mascots. In addition to its motorcars, the collection now contains hundreds of books and magazines — and the factory files of Derham and Judkins coachbuilders and the personal files of automotive designer Ray Dietrich.
Although the Gilmore Museum campus is open year-round, the CCCA Museum is closed in the winter (four months). The museum, which is a 5 01 (c)3 not-for-profit educational foundation, holds its annual “Experience,” the first weekend in June. Today, the original Gilmore Car Museum and the CCCA Museum have been joined by the Pierce-Arrow Museum, the Tucker Historical Collection & Library and the H.H. Franklin Club Museum. Also committed to the Gilmore campus are the Ford Model A Museum, Lincoln Motorcar Foundation Museum and Cadillac-LaSalle Museum. For more information, visit www.cccamuseum.org
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