What bills itself as the world’s last Hudson dealership, the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum, can trace its history back to the 1890s and can count at least three separate automotive dealership franchises throughout its history. Good enough basis, then, for the MotorCities National Heritage Area to shortlist the museum for the Preservation category in its second annual Awards of Excellence.
One of three finalists for the preservation award, the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum celebrates not merely the Hudson brand, but also those automotive brands and models with ties to the difficult-to-spell southeastern Michigan city. Thus the presence of plenty of Tucker automobilia to commemorate Preston Tucker’s work on the Tucker prototypes there as well as plenty of Kaisers, Frazers, Chevrolet Corvairs, and Chevrolet Novas and other X-bodies, all produced at the nearby Willow Run assembly plant.
While the main part of the building dates back to 1892, its first use as a dealership came in 1917, when what is claimed to be the first Dodge dealership outside of Detroit opened there. Over the next couple decades, the building became first a Willys-Overland and then a Hudson dealership. Carl Miller, one of the co-founders of the latter, took sole ownership of the dealership in 1945 and later passed it to his son, Jack Miller. Jack Miller, in turn, continued to sell parts and the occasional Hudson even after American Motors revoked the Miller Motors franchise in 1959.
The Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum came about, according to the museum’s website, after a lunch Miller had with Peter Fletcher and Skip Ungrodt in 1995. The three expanded Miller Motors into nearby buildings and added the various Ypsilanti-built cars as well as a Tucker built for the movie based on Preston Tucker’s life. Miller never forgot his Hudson roots, however, with an entire wing of the building dedicated to the triangle cars; indeed, last year the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum partnered with the Hudson Essex Terraplane Historical Society to create the National Hudson Motor Car Company Museum, based out of Miller Motors.
Photo courtesy Model T Automotive Heritage Complex.
Other finalists in the Preservation category for this year’s MotorCities awards include the digital collections within the National Automotive History Collection at the Detroit Public Library and the volunteer effort to restore more than 250 windows at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant.
Finalists in the other two awards categories – Tourism and Education/Interpretation – include the Dearborn Community Arts Council’s “Fender Bender” sculpture display, the “Oh These Irish Hills” map and tourism guide, the Willow Run: Arsenal of Democracy digital story map, the Ford-Rouge Gateway partnership, the Lansing-MotorCities partnership, and National Automotive History Collection historian Robert Tate.
MotorCities, a non-profit affiliated with the National Park Service, is dedicated to preserving, interpreting and promoting southeastern Michigan’s “rich automotive and labor heritage” and “inspir(ing) residents and visitors with an appreciation for how the automobile changed Michigan, the nation, and the world.” The awards presentation ceremony will take place November 10 at the state capitol building in Lansing. For more information about the awards, visit MotorCities.org.
from Hemmings Daily - News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/1RBdkDY
No comments:
Post a Comment