Studebaker Museum, South Bend, Indiana

Yesterday after breakfast with the Indiana Airstream group, Anne-Marie and I drove into South Bend, and traveled right by The University of Notre Dame.  I didn’t even know that we were this close to it.  There seems to be more exploring to this area that can be done, and we will need to return for another visit.

 

The Studebaker National Museum was our destination, and we found more interesting places to explore on our way to it.

Unknown to us, there is two museums under one roof here, and we choose the Studebaker side for this visit.  First floor has a turntable display, and the featured car is a Woody Station Wagon, I don’t remember seeing any of these on the road.

There are three floors of Studebakers on display.  Prototype autos, and production vehicles are displayed on all floors.

The first display areas show how Studebaker first made wagons, wheels, and carriages in the 1800s, and progressed to automobile manufacturing.  Studebaker made Presidential carriages for Lincoln, Grant, Harrison, and McKinley, and all are on display.   The first display area was where the early cars were displayed, and I broke away from Anne-Marie, and dashed about looking for the special car.  I found 1927 models and 1930 models, but the special car is a 1928 Dictator model.  I learned to drive in a 1928 Dictator, and it was my car for two years.  The special car belonged to my Grandfather, and in the 1940s, it transported my dads family to Washington State, from Wisconsin. 

The cars from the 1930s were large and expensive in the day.  The basement display, in addition to having a row of double stacked displays, also has a history of their involvement on WWII.

On our elevator trip to the upper level, there was one other passenger with us.  The first small display room was the Avanti Owners Association International, and the passenger followed me to the displays.  We chatted on different Studebakers that we owned, touched on film  cameras, and I mentioned that we are living in a Airstream Trailer, and he was quite interesting to visit with.  During an oh by the way moment he told me that his picture was in the display case, John Hora.

John Hora has a vehicle on display on the main floor, the gold Avanti.  John and I visited occasionally during the rest of our tour of the museum, and he was quick to point out design highlights on several prototype vehicles.  John was mentioning items like “I have one of this year at home, I have a project like this needing attention”, and all this made me think that he must have a warehouse of a garage full of a lot of cars.  John has worked in the film industry on both sides of the camera, but mostly behind the lens, and has bought neat cars his whole life, and it sounds like he still has most of them.  The wide picture has Anne-Marie and John on the right, showing the double stacked display in the basement.

Today Anne-Marie and I are returning to the Museums to visit the Center for History Museum.