Remember a few weeks ago when I told you about Paul Ayres? He is the president of the Cadillac-LaSalle Club Museum & Research Center (CLCMRC).
In a recent column I shared that Paul’s organization was relocating to the Gilmore Car Museum (GCM) in May. I think his quote is worth repeating here: “The Gilmore is rapidly becoming one of the nation’s premier auto museums.”
Well, now comes word that the H.H. Franklin Club, Inc. dedicated its new 7,000-square foot facility on the Gilmore campus on Saturday, May 15. The new building resembles a vintage dealership.
In fact, it is a faithful replica of a Los Angeles dealership once owned by Ralph Hamlin, a former bicycle racer who became Franklin’s West Coast distributor and the firm’s largest and most successful dealer.
“We’ve seen a lot of car museums, so we knew what we didn’t want when we designed this place” said Bob Harrison, chairman of the museum’s building committee. “Franklins are unique in a lot of ways, and I hope we’ve found a unique way to tell the Franklin story,” he said.
About 150,000 Franklins were built between 1902 and 1934 in Syracuse, NY. An estimated 3,700 still survive. With the opening of this brand new facility, the Franklin will live again—and get a second chance to catch the public’s fancy.
The dealership-like museum will house some rare automobiles of historic interest. Among them is a Franklin Model A runabout—the first four-cylinder car built in America. A similar Franklin made the trip from San Francisco to New York City in 1904, cutting in half the cross-country record set the previous year.
Other cars in the collection include Franklin’s answer to luxury sedans built by Packard, Pierce and Cadillac, a 1932 Model 17 sedan, which is the one and only American car powered by a 12-cylinder air-cooled engine.
The 1911 racer, in which Hamlin won the Los Angeles-to-Phoenix race, is also on display, courtesy of an Oklahoma collector. You can also see a 1928 sedan that closely resembles the Franklins in which “Cannonball” Baker set so many jazz-era cross-country and hill climb records.
“The goal of this museum is to tell the Franklin story of efficiency, light weight and direct air cooling autos,” said Bob Amon, president of the H. H. Franklin Club. “People sometimes think my air-cooled car is strange,” he says. “But they forget about the 25 million air-cooled VW Beetles—the best-selling car of all time.”
Previous: Lock up a memorable stay in a former prison
Next: Come get Chicago pizza…but not from the usual suspects
Like what you are reading? Get our latest articles via e-mail every week!
No information will be given to outside parties. Unsubscribe
Article Comments
Leave a Reply