November 20 -- LeMay Auto Collection

The big activity of the day was the LeMay Collection of automobiles in Tacoma, about 45 minutes south of Seattle.

Harold LeMay started a garbage hauling business with one old truck when he returned from WWII. This grew into America’s 10th largest waste hauling company and made LeMay spectacularly wealthy. He started collecting cars, and at his death in 2001 had the largest privately owned car collection in the world – 3500 vehicles in at least 20 locations around Washington State.

Much of this collection is now held in the 501(c)(3) organization which runs the LeMay Museum. LeMay collected Cadillacs (one of his favorites) Rolls Royces, Pierce Arrows and the like, but distinguished himself by accumulating low-end cars and trucks too – Chevrolets, Fords, and other brands that are not usually considered collectibles.

The most remarkable car in the collection is a blue 1948 Tucker (above). The 1988 Francis Ford Coppola movie, “Tucker,” starring Jeff Bridges, tells the story of Preston Tucker’s ill-fated bid to build a world-beating car. Only 51 Tuckers were ever built; 47 remain, of which this is supposed to be one of the finest examples. I believe it.

There were too many interesting cars at the museum to discuss all of them, but I include pictures of some fun ones.


The Flintstone’s car (from the movie)!


A 1970’s vintage Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.


A Lincoln Continental and Ford Mustang.


A red Pierce Arrow made for a South American strongman.


A 1930’s Model A Ford painted in original factory colors!


And remember those funny square steering wheels that were popular for a time?

The most exotic car at the museum.

The museum is funny. It’s housed at an old Catholic military academy for boys tucked away behind a Home Depot in an undistinguished part of Tacoma. Each part of the school is used to house vehicles, including the gymnasium (the Tucker’s in that), the old swimming pool (English car collection), and the shower room (the beautiful Kaiser Indian Ceramic pictured below is wedged into that!).

The cars are parked too close to allow free roaming, so one must take a tour. There were eight people on mine, and a very knowledgeable docent. The cars are parked so tightly that it’s very tough to take photographs. A new $90,000,000 facility to replace this one is scheduled to open in downtown Tacoma in 2010. That will allow this fabulous collection to be shown to its best advantage.

I drove back to Seattle – there’s a great view of the city coming north on I-5.  I had a drink with Jake and Martha at Deluxe on Broadway, and then dinner with Jenny at a place called the Hopvine on Capitol Hill.