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See Inside the Tupelo Automobile Museum Collection

The Editors

February 25, 2019 at 2:05 PM

<p>Our apologies if this is the first you've heard that it exists, but the Tupelo Automobile Museum will close its doors at the end of March. Opened in December 2002 in Tupelo, Mississippi-a small town best known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley-the museum soon became a popular attraction. So much so that just months after opening, it was designated the state of Mississippi auto museum.</p>

<p>The museum, which houses the wildly eclectic 174-car collection of telecommunications mogul and Tupelo native Frank Spain, was intended to be self-sustaining and eventually to support educational scholarship programs for local youth. But even after the site was endowed via the sale of some of Spain's real-estate holdings following his death in 2006, the museum failed to support itself. His widow, Jane Spain, has been running the museum for the past dozen years, but its expense has become unsustainable.</p>

<p>"Several automobile museums have closed over recent years," she tells <em>C/D</em>. "Part of it is a cultural change around the history of the automobile, and it not being as interesting to the younger generation. As cars have become more similar, the appreciation for cars having personalities or special attributes that people were proud of have really diminished."</p>

<p>To continue the organization's educational mission, Spain has decided to sell off the entire collection.</p>

<p>Working with advisor Wayne Carini of <em>Chasing Classic Cars</em> and the Bonhams auction house, the museum has scheduled <a rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/25593/" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:an auction for April 26 and 27;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">an auction for April 26 and 27</a> at which all 174 cars will be offered at no reserve.</p>

<p>"We really, truly, do not know what the sale will bring. But you're welcome to join our pool. We're going to be like <em>The Price Is Right</em>. Whoever guesses closest and doesn't go over wins," Spain jokes. "A classic Mustang or a '57 Chevy-we all have pretty clear ideas how much they're worth. But the cars we most value are the very early cars, because there are so few of them left in the world. We believe that museums will be the most interested parties for those."</p>

<p>The Tupelo museum has had estimates that the auction could bring anywhere from $7 million to $25 million, but with the vagaries of the collector-car market, it could be significantly more or less.</p>

<p>Fortunately for those of us who love cars, and especially for those of us who love oddball cars, the museum will remain open until the end of March. That means you still have time to get out there and stroll among <a rel="nofollow noopener" href="http://www.tupeloautomuseum.com/list.php" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:the chronologically arranged collection;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">the chronologically arranged collection</a>, which spans more than 100 years, from an 1886 Benz to a 1994 Dodge Viper.</p>

<p>There is nothing standard about the Spain collection. Sure, there are some familiar American notables, but even those are special.</p>

<p>The 1912 White is all-original, the Ford Model T is a final-year-of-production car from 1927, the 1939 Cadillac V-16 is a behemoth limousine, the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air is a pristine two-door convertible, and the 1964 Avanti is a factory-supercharged coupe.</p>

<p>Deaccessioning a collection that her beloved husband spent decades assembling is bittersweet for Spain.</p>

<p>"I can walk down almost any row and find a car that is special to me. The first date I had with my husband we had in the bright-yellow 1972 Mercedes-Benz 450SL-not my favorite shade, but he always loved those bright colors," she says.</p>

<p>"A 1954 Mercury Sun Valley that we drove back from Fairbanks, Alaska. We broke down in the Yukon, limped into Whitehorse, and spent a week there waiting for the bush plane to bring us the parts we needed. Or the 1982 Maserati Quattroporte. Frank liked to bring cars home, and at various points, he'd hand off a car to me to be my car. At a point when my son was in elementary school, I was daily-driving a Maserati. I got a lot of shady looks dropping my son off at school, like, Who are you and what did you do to get that car?"</p>

<p>Tupelo is less than a two-hour drive from the Memphis airport, for those who care to visit in the remaining time.</p>

<p>And, unlike most car-museum experiences, if you see something that catches your eye, you can come back later in the spring and bid on it, or even buy it.</p>

<p>Help Jane Spain support her vision, and help Frank's cars find their next home.</p>

<p>"I've watched and loved these cars through the years in this museum," Spain says. "I'm not particularly a car person. I'm an adventure person. And it's time they had new adventures."</p>

Our apologies if this is the first you've heard that it exists, but the Tupelo Automobile Museum will close its doors at the end of March. Opened in December 2002 in Tupelo, Mississippi-a small town best known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley-the museum soon became a popular attraction. So much so that just months after opening, it was designated the state of Mississippi auto museum.

Tupelo Automobile Museum

A wildly eclectic collection of 174 vehicles will be auctioned off in April, bringing an end to a nearly 20-year run for this Mississippi museum.

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