swigart auto museum

Anyone with an interest in Preston Tucker's Dream must visit the Swigart Museum in Huntingdon, PA. Unbelievable to know 47 of the 51 Tuckers plus the original hand built prototype still exist. Swigart Museum is located within same day drive time of the AACA Museum in Hershey,PA. You get 2 for the price of one viewing! The Tin Goose prototype and Tucker #1013 are normally side by side on the museum floor. Sometimes, they take "trips", so call ahead to be certain they are currently on display There are many other "old" antique cars in the museum as well. Where can you see a Studebaker Powered Wagon, a Sears, and a Duesenberg all under the same roof? The museum has a magnificent collection of Radiator Badges, caps, and horns. The license plate wall from all 50 states contains tags from each year on large wooden "pages" to leaf through. The setting offers a nice picnic area for lunch under the trees on the museum grounds. Any trip close by is well worth the drive down Rt. 22 for a visit. Check out their website for hours of operation.

Displayed autos do change over time. Displayed items are very interesting to a car historian. Docent friendly and knowledgeable.

This antique auto museum is absolutely amazing. It houses many "mint condition" antique automobiles. Located on route 22 just East of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. It appears small from the exterior but don't be fooled. It houses a plethora of beautiful Antique Automobiles in pretty much pristine condition. When you enter the museum there are hundreds of automobile emblems, antique horns, carriage lamps and everything auto related including original drivers licenses. Original old licenses were actually pins. They even have an extensive collection of the dies that were used to make the car emblems. The woman at the counter who's name is Christie was extremely knowledgeable about the automobiles in the museum and showed us so rather novel devices from yesteryear. As you enter the the showroom your eye is immediately drawn to a beautiful Black 1929 Duesenberg. The museum has not only one but two Tucker's. A 1947 Tucker Prototype in a beautiful Marion color. A 1948 Tucker Production Torpedo #13. This vehicle was used in the motion picture "Tucker". They also have another car used in several movies.A 1960 Volkswagen with the number 53 enveloped in a circle. This is the original "HERBIE" uses in the movie "The Love Bug".This museum continues to amaze you with a beautiful cream colored 1932 Duesenberg. There is even a 1981 DeLorean like the one from the movie Back to the Future. There is a 1937 Cord in a deep cherry color.A 1905 Rambler in fire engine red. A 1903 open air Oldsmobile complete with its fully operational scaled down salesman sample sibling. A 1938 American Austin Bantam-60 in a two tone cream white and red paint scheme. I could go on and on ..... Far too many more to mention here. They have antique license plates from every US State and many others from around the globe. I was lucky enough to get to speak with the widow of the museums founder, William E. Swigart, Jr. Mrs Patricia Swigart who shared many stories about the car collection and her conversations with Preston Tucker and who still to this day still communicates with his son. I found her stories to be rather intriguing and was appreciative of her sharing her stories with me. This museum is listed in the book "Great Car Collections of the World". Named by Car Collector magazine as one of the ten best large auto museums in the United States. Not even the Henry Ford Museum is as old as Swigart's. This collection began over 90 years ago.This museum is a MUST SEE MUSEUM ! You would have to search the entire globe to find many of the beautiful cars found here. It is plain to see that it's founder and family has a true appreciation deep within their hearts for antique autobobiles

This is a good automobile museum. Very clean and well kept. Unfortunately it is not very large and they only have room for about 30-40 cars. The cars they have are outstanding and in excellent shape (the two Tuckers alone are worth the price of admission). There are areas there to keep the kids occupied and engage. Not sure I would make a special trip to go there although if you are in the area it is certainly worth the cost of admission and the investment of an hour or so to walk through it.

In the area to boat on the lake and we get rain out one day, with an 8 and 13 year old my wife and I were looking for something to do with the kids and remembered the Swigart Auto Museum on route 22 near Huntingdon. The building is very unassuming, you would drive right by if not looking for it. When you enter the museum, there is a really awesome collection of antique auto parts, models, radiators, car badges, etc. then there is a back section ,which by the way has an nominal entrance fee that goes to the preservation of the automobiles that are in the collection. The collection is really good and captured the atention of the whole family, everybody had there "WOW can you belive they have that " expression on. Well worth the time and effort.

The Swigart Museum is a smaller auto museum in Central PA. What it lacks in square footage it makes up for in the quality of the cars displayed. There are truly unique cars in the collection like Brewster, Brush, and early brasss. My favorite cars displayed are the two Tuckers. With only 48 known to exist, this museum has 2 of them; the prototype and car #13. Both cars are in great condition. The two items (other than the Tuckers...) that set this museum apart were the quality of the descriptions provided on the cars, and secondly the service provided by Duane, the docent. Duane must truly enjoy what he does and is a real asset to the museum. While I consider myself fairly well informed on antique autos, I picked up some new information that I really enjoyed. The Swigart Museum in located in a beautiful area of central PA. If traveling to or from Hershey or Carlisle this would be a nice stop along the way.

Very cool cars, two Tuckers! Worth the stop and they let active military in for free. If you love cars stop.

Great way to spend a few hours if you're in the area visiting Raystown Lake. In addition to antique cars, they also have a small collection of vintage toys which was fun for my kids to check out and of course there is a small gift shop. Since we live so close, we are able to visit whenever they are having a car show which makes each trip to the museum different.

We visited during their car show and it was quite an experience. There are many eras represented and brought back memories of previous visits.

I took my son (13 yrs old) to this museum this past summer while we were in the area for Raystown Lake. From the road it doesn't look like much, but it is definitely worth the stop. The gentleman who was working that day knew the history of the museum quite well, and knew the history of the cars that were on display. It's always more interesting to look at antique automobiles when you know who drove them, or that they were famous in their day for a specific thing. Other than the cars themselves, it was quite interesting to see all the extras they have...license plates, horns, emblems, toy cars, etc. They also have a very nice selection of items for purchase in their gift shop. I would recommend this museum to anyone who enjoys automobiles.

This is the oldest car museum in the United States. It's worth it to go just to say you were there, if you are into cars. There were about 30 cars on display when we went and the docent was very informative and (I hope I don't get anyone in trouble) even opened a car door to let us see inside better, which I thought was very nice as usually everything is behind a rope and you feel like the cars probably haven't been moved since they were moved in. The museum is small but has two Tuckers, one of which is the prototype. It also has a large collection of license plates and emblems. It reminded me more of being in a friends really, really nice garage rather than a regular museum as the docent talked about Mr. Swigart like a friend which was nice.

This is a small museum with the space to exhibit about 30-35 of its actual holdings of about 150 cars. But, what you see and get for the low admission price is so worth many return visits. It's history is interesting,beginning as a private passion of our founder W. Emmert Swigart. His son, William E. Swigart, Jr., fell under the spell of these wonderful machines and built up the collection to its current size. The tour guide, Jerry, was very personable. Some are one-of-a-kind such as the 1936 Duesenberg 12 cylinder Gentlemen’s Speedster, the 1920 Carroll, and the 1916 Scripps-Booth. The Swigart Museum is the only automobile museum in the country where visitors can see two Tuckers, the 1947 “Tin Goose” Prototype and #1013, which was in the movie about Tucker starring Jeff Bridges. They also have the VW bug that was in the "Herbie" movies. I eagerly and enthusiastically recommend at least 1 visit to this gem of a museum.

There are some surprising one and two of a kind in this museum plus a huge collection of auto emblems.

The Swigart Auto Museum was highly recommended by a friend. We decided to make it our primary destination of a day trip from Pittsburgh. Located in Huntingdon, PA, East of Altoona on Rt. 22. The distance from Pittsburgh was about 135 miles, and exceeded all expectations. The Swigart has about 200 cars in its collection with 30-35 on permanent display. Not only were the cars outstanding but the Museum has probably the largest car badge display in the U.S. as well as a huge license plate collection. We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon in a relaxed atmosphere aided by an outstanding hostess and docent who explained many of the stories behind the Swigart collection. It definitely was a great experience for anyone interested in cars.

If you like antique automobiles, this is the place for you. They have two Tuckers on display, along with numerous other antiques.