R E Olds Museum
September 13th, 2011, 04:51 AM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: West Valley City Utah.
Posts: 372
R E Olds Museum
I was watching History Channel Last Night and on American Pickers they found a Leather Plate that used to belong to the OLDS company and to get it appraised the guys went to the R.E. Olds Museum.. looks like a great place to enjoy an day or two seeing it all.
September 13th, 2011, 05:42 AM
#2
Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: southeastern Michigan
Posts: 14,300
I was just there in late July, and it's definitely a must-see for any Olds enthusiast. I took a bunch of photos, and you can see them here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/gulinod...eat=directlink
You don't need a day or two. Give it two hours and you can see the whole thing. Maybe three if you want to take a lot of photos and want to set things up with a good camera and a tripod as opposed to the occasional point and shoot.
One word of caution: you might want to hurry. The museum is apparently in poor shape financially, and there is an effort amongst the OCA chapters and the OCA itself to raise money. But I don't see how $1000 here and $1000 there will sustain it over the long haul.
It's a large building and there were at least three staffers there when we were there on a weekday afternoon. There were no other visitors that we saw when we were there. It's location doesn't help. Lansing is fine, but it's tucked behind some office buildings in the downtown area, and unless you know where it is, you won't casually see it if you're going down one of the nearby downtown streets by car or on foot.
I have to believe they need $150,000 or $200,000 per year just to pay the bills. (Those staffers may have been volunteers. I don't know.) Without a corporate sponsor, I don't see how they last. With no Oldsmobile division to support them (I don't know if Olds ever supported them, but I think they did), it falls to GM itself to do it. How long will financially-troubled GM want to do that? I don't know.
As I say, hurry. It might not be there a year from now.
https://picasaweb.google.com/gulinod...eat=directlink
You don't need a day or two. Give it two hours and you can see the whole thing. Maybe three if you want to take a lot of photos and want to set things up with a good camera and a tripod as opposed to the occasional point and shoot.
One word of caution: you might want to hurry. The museum is apparently in poor shape financially, and there is an effort amongst the OCA chapters and the OCA itself to raise money. But I don't see how $1000 here and $1000 there will sustain it over the long haul.
It's a large building and there were at least three staffers there when we were there on a weekday afternoon. There were no other visitors that we saw when we were there. It's location doesn't help. Lansing is fine, but it's tucked behind some office buildings in the downtown area, and unless you know where it is, you won't casually see it if you're going down one of the nearby downtown streets by car or on foot.
I have to believe they need $150,000 or $200,000 per year just to pay the bills. (Those staffers may have been volunteers. I don't know.) Without a corporate sponsor, I don't see how they last. With no Oldsmobile division to support them (I don't know if Olds ever supported them, but I think they did), it falls to GM itself to do it. How long will financially-troubled GM want to do that? I don't know.
As I say, hurry. It might not be there a year from now.
Last edited by jaunty75; September 13th, 2011 at 05:44 AM.
September 13th, 2011, 06:20 AM
#3
Registered User
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Denver
Posts: 699
I saw American Pickers and was pretty excited when I saw the Old's leather license plate. Then when they went to the Old's Museum I was down right giddy as I have been there. It is an amazing place to visit. My wife doesn't remember going there...I tried to remind her of the Toronado they had from the Lansing plant with the ends chopped off to push cars in the snow...way cool.
Tom
68 442 convt (gotta get my bumpers hung)
70 F85
95 Aurora
Tom
68 442 convt (gotta get my bumpers hung)
70 F85
95 Aurora
September 13th, 2011, 07:07 AM
#4
Trying to remember member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Ohio
Posts: 4,112
One word of caution: you might want to hurry. The museum is apparently in poor shape financially, and there is an effort amongst the OCA chapters and the OCA itself to raise money. But I don't see how $1000 here and $1000 there will sustain it over the long haul.
It's a large building and there were at least three staffers there when we were there on a weekday afternoon. There were no other visitors that we saw when we were there. It's location doesn't help. Lansing is fine, but it's tucked behind some office buildings in the downtown area, and unless you know where it is, you won't casually see it if you're going down one of the nearby downtown streets by car or on foot.
I have to believe they need $150,000 or $200,000 per year just to pay the bills. (Those staffers may have been volunteers. I don't know.) Without a corporate sponsor, I don't see how they last. With no Oldsmobile division to support them (I don't know if Olds ever supported them, but I think they did), it falls to GM itself to do it. How long will financially-troubled GM want to do that? I don't know.
As I say, hurry. It might not be there a year from now.
It's a large building and there were at least three staffers there when we were there on a weekday afternoon. There were no other visitors that we saw when we were there. It's location doesn't help. Lansing is fine, but it's tucked behind some office buildings in the downtown area, and unless you know where it is, you won't casually see it if you're going down one of the nearby downtown streets by car or on foot.
I have to believe they need $150,000 or $200,000 per year just to pay the bills. (Those staffers may have been volunteers. I don't know.) Without a corporate sponsor, I don't see how they last. With no Oldsmobile division to support them (I don't know if Olds ever supported them, but I think they did), it falls to GM itself to do it. How long will financially-troubled GM want to do that? I don't know.
As I say, hurry. It might not be there a year from now.
But it won't be up to GM to save it. GM has no interest in that whatsoever. They have more that enough trouble with the GM Heritage Center.
It will be up to organizations like the Automobile History Preservation Society http://www.ahpsoc.org . Anyone truly concerned should join up and help out.
September 13th, 2011, 09:23 AM
#5
Registered Thread Killer
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 192
Thanks for the tour Jaunty. Absolutely amazing! I've always wondered what had happened to the Hairy Hurst Olds, and the article regarding the '64 w/ 480,000 miles is really something. My first car looked identical to the maroon '62 F-85 Cutlass in the background.
I'll have to get down there.
Oh and Kurt, the piece of Toro block is on its way to you. Just mailed it today.
I'll have to get down there.
Oh and Kurt, the piece of Toro block is on its way to you. Just mailed it today.
Last edited by mfgusa; September 13th, 2011 at 09:25 AM.
September 13th, 2011, 10:54 AM
#6
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Flint, Michigan
Posts: 156
A good friend of mine is a curator at the Buick Gallery Museum at the Sloan here in Flint, and she told me to go check out the Olds museums since she knows I have a 68 442, but she told me to hurry because she doesn't know how much longer they will be around. She was telling me that they are very close to bankrupt.
January 9th, 2012, 03:48 PM
#8
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: EAST LANSING
Posts: 128
I saw American Pickers and was pretty excited when I saw the Old's leather license plate. Then when they went to the Old's Museum I was down right giddy as I have been there. It is an amazing place to visit. My wife doesn't remember going there...I tried to remind her of the Toronado they had from the Lansing plant with the ends chopped off to push cars in the snow...way cool.
Tom
68 442 convt (gotta get my bumpers hung)
70 F85
95 Aurora
Tom
68 442 convt (gotta get my bumpers hung)
70 F85
95 Aurora
January 9th, 2012, 05:04 PM
#9
Always room for one more
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Georgia
Posts: 7,810
Jaunty do you have your pictures posted somewhere else? I clicked on your link and it said no page available.
I was at the Olds museum in 1987. It was in an old building, dark and not well decorated. I hope if this is the same place it looks a little better. And I hope they can get things together and not go under.
I saw the push-Toronado then, but don't remember much else about it.
Mike
I was at the Olds museum in 1987. It was in an old building, dark and not well decorated. I hope if this is the same place it looks a little better. And I hope they can get things together and not go under.
I saw the push-Toronado then, but don't remember much else about it.
Mike
January 9th, 2012, 06:15 PM
#10
Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: southeastern Michigan
Posts: 14,300
January 9th, 2012, 06:33 PM
#11
Always room for one more
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Georgia
Posts: 7,810
Thanks Jaunty. Those are great pictures. The place looks a lot nicer than when I was there. It would be such a shame to lose this jewel. I hope I can make it up there this summer, and I hope it is still there this summer.
Mike
Mike
January 10th, 2012, 04:58 AM
#13
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: EAST LANSING
Posts: 128
I went to school at Sexton high school, in 1981-82 that tornado was the push car at the Sexton service station class. I was in that with my buddy doing front wheel burnouts from one end of the parking lot to the other. funny thing, my drivers ed class was in that same parking lot, in a mobile class unit.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
jeffreyalman
General Discussion
6
August 19th, 2010 11:10 PM
