It's a Duesy, alright!Jul 22, 2009
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Auburn Automobile Company's Hdqtrs is now home of ACD Museum
showroom loks exactly as it did in 1930s
1936 Auburn - the last year they were built
Auburn is the "Home of the Classics" because there are at least 5 classic car, truck and train museums here! On this rainy day, I decided to visit the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum and I thought it was one of the best car museums I have seen so far!
It is housed in what used to be the International Headquarters of the Auburn Automobile Company. His designers and builders and corporate officers worked here in this art deco building of the 1930s that is a National Historic Landmark. The showroom where car dealers came to see the new cars before they were delivered has been restored to look exactly how it looked in the 1930s.
These expensive, high class cars were built in the 1920s and 30s but the company just couldn't survive the Great Depression and the Auburn Automobile Company and Duesenberg, Inc. were dissolved in 1937 - I wonder why! ha!
The Auburn cars were started by the Eckhart brothers in the early 1900s but they struggled after WWI when there was a recession, so E.L. Cord bought them out in 1924 and increased sales for a time before his sales declined as well.
Cord hired good designers and added the Cord cars to his inventory. But that wasn't enough. He also bought out the Duesenberg brothers who were building cars in Indianapolis and became the car company selling the best and most expensive cars in the country. People like the owner of GM (ha - he didn't own his own cars??), J. Paul Getty, FDR, and Frank Lloyd Wright owned his cars. Elvis drove a Duesenberg in his movie called "Spinout" and was disappointed that he wasn't allowed to buy it afterward.
This museum has many cars that were donated by owners of the classic cars who kept them in great shape and even drove them in parades. Some are driven in the annual Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival now! The museum also sells a few cars in an auction, proceeds going to the museum of course. So, I guess, if you really wanted, you could buy one of these babies this year - come here on Labor Day weekend and bid - or register now!
