The Best Car Museums – America’s Packard Museum

We’ve featured a few car museums and shows in the past – from Florida to Michigan to the warm coast of California – but you wrangle up some experts and chances are they’ll agree that America’s Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio is one of the best. Car Collector magazine even said so, naming it one of the top ten in the country back in 1998.

We like it, because it’s a settled piece of history. The last Packard was built over 50 years ago now (depending on whether or not you tolerate this), and with each passing year this stunning collection of more than 50 classic sedans only grows in prestige and fascination. Sadly, also, with the American auto industry at one of its lowest points, the Packard Museum is a preservation of an American icon. Some might say one of the most American.

Maybe I’m jumping ahead. America’s Packard Museum is a car museum in Dayton, Ohio dedicated to the Packard line of luxury sedans and automobiles, built from 1899 to 1958. The museum is dedicated both to Packard, the company that the cars, and to the Packard, the series of cars themselves, with more than 50 automobiles from throughout the almost 60-year history.

What history buffs may find even more interesting, however, is the museum itself, located in the original Packard Dealership Building. Built first in 1917, the building has been exquisitely restored, and now a step out onto that iconic Art Deco showroom is like a step back 75 years in time.

Along with the cars, America’s Packard Museum features a respectable gallery of classic Packard artifacts and memorabilia – car ornaments, company papers, advertising, that kind of thing. It’s well worth the walk, but nothing compared those beautiful vehicles, dutifully waxed and polished to a just-off-the-line shine.

If you live in the area, you may even find the time to grab a ride in one. The Packard Museum actually provides transportation service with a few select vehicles. Got an event coming up that necessitates a limo? Surprise everyone by rolling up in a 1930 Packard 740 Open Front Town Car. It’s a perfect ice breaker, and it supports the museum.

Speaking of support, the Packard Museum does rely quite a bit on contributing patrons and charges only $6 admission to visit. We encourage you to check it out, and if you like what they’re doing (we know you will), go ahead and chip in a little more. You’d be supporting a piece of American history.

America’s Packard Museum is open seven days a week, excepting some holidays, and is located at Franklin and Ludlow in Dayton, Ohio. Again, admission is only six bucks. Learn more.

Stay cozy in Dayton, Ohio at the Ramada Plaza Dayton Hotel. We love a hotel that lays on the free – free airport and area shuttle, free Internet, free parking, free business center. All with comfy rooms to boot.

Have fun!

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