Walter P. Chrysler Museum Closing at Year's End

Attention history buffs and antique-auto aficionados: get your gristly haunches in gear because a landmark Detroit-area automotive attraction is closing its doors.

Effective December 31, the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, Mich. will no longer be open to the public. Yes, that’s this December 31… as in just a few days.

Don’t worry though; the museum’s remarkable and historic collection isn’t going anywhere. Its namesake automaker is buying everything up and rolling it into the Chrysler Foundation, the company’s charitable arm, which has awarded more than $500 million in grants over the last 59 years.

The Walter P. Chrysler Museum may lack the breadth and depth of The Henry Ford, another local institution, but this 55,000-square-foot facility has a unique collage of vehicles and memorabilia you can’t find anywhere else.

First opened to the public in October of 1999, the museum’s collection is spread out over three separate floors; it currently contains 67 different vehicles as well as dozens of other displays and interactive exhibits. The oldest car on show is a 1902 Rambler.

The lineup of vintage iron includes vehicles from several extinct brands including DeSoto and Plymouth. In addition, other makes are represented including a 1917 Willys-Knight 88-8 Touring and an AMC Eagle Coupe, just to name a couple. These non-Pentastar vehicles are from companies that played an important role in forming the modern Chrysler we know today. You’d never expect to see a Hudson Hornet inline-six sitting next to a PowerFlite automatic transmission, but it’s all there, and a lot more.

As impressive as the museum’s collection is, it just hasn’t generated enough traffic.

“We are closing it to the public at the end of the year” said Chrysler spokesman Kevin Frazier. “It’s had its challenges to raise funds to sustain itself,” he said.

Rick Sheeran, one of the museum’s helpful docents and a retired 19-year veteran of the company’s financial department said, “the Chrysler Museum Foundation is a public foundation. Apparently under the tax rules they have to get at least 30 percent of their support from public donations.” He also said, “the plan is to have Chrysler, the car company, buy the collection back.”

Sheeran, who started volunteering at the museum earlier this year, said, “we had great ambitions to be a great car museum, but it just didn’t turn out to be that.” “I just think it’s a shame,” he said.

The museum may be closing but it’s not completely shutting down. Going forward it will be used to meet Chrysler’s needs and it will open its doors to the public during special exhibitions.

Sheeran said everybody that’s associated with it hopes it will be open again for people to see. “It’s the company’s heritage; it’s the employees’ heritage,” he said.

The Walter P. Chrysler Museum is located about 30 miles north of downtown Detroit in Auburn Hills, Mich. It’s conveniently accessible by I-75. It will remain open during normal hours through the end of the year. If you haven’t seen it yet, go and check it out before it’s too late. You’ll be glad you did.

General admission is $8. Seniors 62 and older pay $7; juniors age 6 to 12 get in for $4. Groups of 15 or more that register in advance also pay $4 per person. Elementary and high-school student groups pay $5; children 5 and younger get in for free.