Visit to a Car Museum

In late July, my Dad took a break from making cabinets in Stanwood and we went to tour the LeMay car museum in Tacoma, WA. How appropriate (or ironic?) that I'm posting this just now as the giants from Detroit - GM, Ford and Chrysler are struggling to survive and are begging the government for bailout money. The auto maker's glory days of the past may be gone, but thanks to museums like this one, their products live on for us modern day folks to see.


It's a fascinating place, this "museum". The story of how a garbage company owner assembled the largest private auto collection in the world is really amazing. While they are planning to build a new state of the art museum near the Tacoma dome to move the collection to it, now the cars are all housed in the campus of an old school. Some of the "extra" cars are just sitting outside in an open shed.

A frowning old Lincoln in the car shed.

The restored cars are packed in warehouses with not even enough room between them to open the doors. Most of the cars have their fluids drained and do not run. But they still look great.


The Chevys from the 50's and older all sit in this gym. Notice the cars even in the bleachers. I wonder if this was the inspiration for the racing scenes in the movie "Cars"?

A 1953 Chevy Deluxe. Wow, they just don't build them like this anymore.

The museum just goes on and on, like a labyrinth of cars and more cars. These beauties are all from the 20's . I especially like the "Crosley's" on the upper shelf there.