The Gilmore Car Museum started in the early 1960s when Donald S. Gilmore began collecting vintage automobiles.
See also our overview of the Gilmore Car Museum Campus.
The Gilmore Car Museum started in the early 1960s when Donald S. Gilmore began collecting vintage automobiles. Some of the first vehicles in his collection included 1927 Ford Model T, a 1913 Rolls Royce, and a 1920 Pierce Arrow. Restoring that classic Pierce-Arrow at his home on nearby Gull Lake ignited a passion. Over the years that followed Donald continued collecting some of the world’s most renowned automobiles.
To accommodate his collection he acquired 90 acres of land in southwestern Michigan in a small town known as Hickory Corners. It was his wife Genevieve who had the idea of turning the collection into a museum, providing future generations access to Donald’s one-of-a-kind collection. They established a non-profit foundation and opened the museum to the public for the first time on Sunday, July 31, 1966.
Photo by Sicnag (1930 Cord L29 Cabriolet) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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