America’s Packard Museum

 Before leaving Dayton, Trish and I spent a couple of hours at America’s Packard Museum, located right downtown in a beautiful old art deco Packard dealership building.  Even without any cars, the building is fascinating.  Everything there is intact from the showroom to the service department.

The museum claims to have the largest collection of Packards in one place of any museum anywhere and they certainly have enough to fill your eyes and imagination for a day.

The showroom, with its original tile floor, is set up to display cars just as they would have in the 1930’s when it was new.  Here, a beautiful 1934 touring convertible is on display.  It looks brand new.

As you proceed through the museum, you move forward through time.  From the great vehicles of the 1930’s, we go to the more practical but luxurious examples of the ‘40s.

In a second whole connected building we arrive at the beautiful 1950’s vehicles. These are long, low, and colorful.  This particular red convertible was Perry Como’s personal daily driver.

Finally we see the end of the line for Packard. The company just did not have the resources to compete with Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler after WW II.  As sales slumped they merged with Studebaker, which had similar financial weaknesses, and the last Packards were actually rebranded Studebakers.  This 1957 is, but for the slightly modified grille, a Studebaker Golden Hawk. It is a real contrast from the yellow 1933 twin-cowl convertible that sits beside it.  These two cars represent the highest and lowest moments in the life of this great car maker.

We had a great visit!