The LeMay Family Collection of about 1,900 antique and vintage automobiles has been recognized as the world’s largest automobile collection. About 500 vehicles from this collection are on display at the Marymount Event Center (a former Catholic Military Academy) in Tacoma, Washington. Shown below are some of the 1930 era cars which can be seen in the White Building.
1932 Chevrolet BA Confederate
This car sold new for $485.
1933 Cadillac Series 370C Fisher Town Sedan
This car sold new for $3,995.
1936 Ford Deluxe Phaeton
In 1936, 5,555 were produced and they sold new for $505 to $755.
1937 Packard Model 1508 Touring Limousine
One of the first American companies to manufacture and sell automobiles was the Winton Motor Carriage Company. By 1899, mechanical engineer James Packard was convinced that he could build a better car than the Winton. Packard had offered suggestions for improving the Winton to Alexander Winton, but these suggestions were ignored.
James Packard, together with his brother William Packard and George Lewis Wiess (a stockholder in the Winton company), built a factory in Warren, Ohio and produced the first Packard on November 6, 1899. In 1900, the Ohio Automobile Company was founded to produce Packard automobiles and in 1902 the name was changed to the Packard Motor Car Company with James Packard as president.
With regard to marketing, Packards were an automobile for the wealthy.
The Great Depression of the 1930s sounded the death knell for many American automobile manufacturers. Packard responded to the challenges by continuing to manufacture luxury automobiles. Packard had a single production line with interchangeability between models which meant that Packard was able to keep its costs down. In addition, Packard did not introduce new models annually.
The Packard shown below had a V-12 engine.
1937 Buick 40-C Special
Buick was founded in 1899 by David Buick as the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company which manufactured internal combustion engines. Walter Marr, Buick’s chief engineer, made the first two Buicks between 1899 and 1900. However, David Buick was more comfortable manufacturing marine engines than entering into the growing American automobile market. Walter Marr left Buick in 1901 to found his own automobile company.
That same year, James Whiting, the owner of Flint Wagon Works, acquired Buick with the idea of adding Buick’s engines to his farm wagons. Whiting moved the company to Flint Michigan. Marr then returned to Buick in 1903 to help oversee the production of automobiles.
In 1908, Buick Motor Company became the Buick Motor Division of General Motors (GM) and the Buick brand became one of GM’s cornerstones. GM was founded by William Durant. Durant envisioned a large corporation with each division making cars for one class of buyer. Within this scheme, Chevrolet was to be an entry level car and Cadillac was to be GM’s prestige brand. Buick was to be near the top and the ideal buyer would be moderately wealthy, but unable to afford a Cadillac.
The Buick shown below sold new for $1,302.
1937 Pontiac Deluxe Eight
Pontiac started as a companion car to the Oakland in 1926. Pontiac was priced above Chevrolet and below Oldsmobile. The new price was $1,235.
1938 Humber Pullman Mark I Limo
British-based Humber built automobiles from 1898 until 1976. This was a chauffer-driven car.
1939 Plymouth Deluxe P8
This had a new price of $755.