After searching for the perfect place to house a Hudson car museum, the
Hudson Essex Terraplane Historical Society has finally found it: Depot Town. Thanks to a partnership with the
Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum (YAHM), the Ypsilanti building will soon be the home of the National Hudson Motor Car Company Museum.
"It was a Hudson dealership and was known as the last operating Hudson dealership," says Bill Nickels, YAHM secretary. "And they'll bring in the history of Hudson from the teens, twenties and thirties, and we don't have much exhibited from those decades."
The partnership is also a financial one, which will benefit the local organization and give visitors even more Hudson automotive history to enjoy in a uniquely appropriate setting.
"Hudson was what they term an independent," says Nickels. "It wasn't General Motor, Ford or Chrysler. It was a struggle for independents, but Hudson was an innovator. They did have features in their cars that were first, and were eventually adopted by the industry."
The National Hudson Motor Car Company Museum will operate in a 10,000 square foot exhibit that will make up about a third of the YAHM. The exhibit will be designed to look like an operating Hudson dealership during a particular decade from the early 1900s to the 1950s, and the era will change over time. Construction is now underway, though most of the YAHM will remain open throughout.
The grand opening of the National Hudson Motor Car Company Museum will take place on the weekend of Sept. 21 in conjunction with the YAHM's Orphan Car Show in Riverside Park.
Source: Bill Nickels, Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum
Writer: Natalie Burg
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