In a previous post I gave you a glimpse into one of West Michigan’s best-kept secrets, the Gilmore Car Museum (GCM) in Hickory Corners. In the words of Paul Ayres, “The Gilmore is rapidly becoming one of the nation’s premier auto museums.”
Paul should know. He is the president of the Cadillac-LaSalle Club Museum & Research Center (CLCMRC), and his organization has announced their relocation to the Gilmore campus in May, 2010.
“After an exhaustive survey of potential museum partners across the country, we are pleased to be joining the Gilmore Car Museum,” Ayers said. The Cadillac-LaSalle Club Museum and Research Center was founded in 1995 to preserve the legacy of America’s most successful luxury automobile.
Scheduled to open May 1, 2010, the Cadillac-LaSalle Club Museum will utilize an existing historic building on the Gilmore campus. In the meantime, officials will finalize funding and facility designs for an all-new 10,000-square-foot exhibit building on the Gilmore grounds.
A competition among retired automotive stylists will determine the look—possibly as a vintage car dealership or other historic recreation—of the new structure.
The new Cadillac-LaSalle Club Museum will provide the 7,000-member organization a permanent home for its collection of automobiles, display engines and artifacts that span the history of Cadillac and its companion car, LaSalle.
Cadillac began in 1902 when The Henry Ford Company was liquidated after investors became unhappy that no production automobiles had been manufactured. Ford was ousted and Henry Leland was hired on as a consultant.
Leland suggested they build the company’s car utilizing his engine design, and the Cadillac Automobile Company was born. Cadillac introduced its first model at the New York Auto Show in 1903, and the response was so great that by mid-week company salesmen had sold out of all available models.
Henry Leland had worked as a precision machinist for Colt firearms in Connecticut before moving to Detroit and starting his own machine shop. His precision and demand for accuracy help explain why Cadillac became one of the most prestigious American auto brands.
The new Cadillac-Lasalle facility at the GCM will display eleven vintage autos, including the 1931 Cadillac Sedan (pictured here). LaSalle was introduced in 1927 to fill the price gap between Buick and Cadillac, and models were produced through 1940.
Also on display will be a 1937 LaSalle Convertible Sedan, a 1941 Cadillac 60 Special (the design triumph of GM stylist Bill Mitchell) a 1948 Cadillac 60 Special (the first Cadillac with tail fins) and the 1957 Cadillac Brougham used in the film “Driving Miss Daisy.”
When completed, the Cadillac-LaSalle Club Museum will house examples of automobiles, artifacts, memorabilia and ephemera, as well as educational exhibits covering the entire story of Cadillac and LaSalle.
According to Michael Spezia, Executive Director of the Gilmore Car Museum, “With the addition of the Cadillac-LaSalle Museum to the Gilmore campus we now become one of the more unique historic destinations, not just within the car collecting hobby but with the general public as well.”
The Gilmore Car Museum, located in Hickory Corners, near Kalamazoo, Michigan, is renowned for its collection of over 200 extraordinary vehicles as well as its 90-acre park-like campus dotted with historic buildings.
A small town train depot, a 1930s gas station, a 1941 diner and a circa 1918 re-created Franklin auto dealership are just a few of the buildings currently on the ever-expanding campus.
The GCM also serves as home to the Classic Car Club of America Museum, the Pierce-Arrow Museum, The Franklin Automobile Collection and the Tucker Historical Collection and Library. Soon to be joining the Gilmore are the Lincoln Motorcar Foundation and the Model A Ford Foundation.
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