Larz Anderson Auto Museum is located in the Anderson Carriage House on the grounds of

Larz Anderson Park Larz Anderson Park is a wooded, landscaped, and waterscaped parkland in Brookline, Massachusetts that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The southwest corner of the park is in Boston. The park contains playing fields, picn ...

in Brookline, Massachusetts and is the oldest collection of motorcars in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The museum is a non-profit educational institution with community events, lectures, children's programs, walking tours of the park, and an ever-changing series of exhibits on motor vehicles and the automobile's impact on society and culture.

History

The collection was begun by

Larz Anderson Larz Anderson (August 15, 1866 – April 13, 1937) was an American diplomat and ''bon vivant''. He served as second secretary at the United States Legation to the Court of St James's, London; as first secretary and later '' chargé d'affai ...

and Isabel Weld Perkins soon after they married. In 1899 they purchased a true "horseless carriage" made by the

Winton Motor Carriage Company The Winton Motor Carriage Company was a pioneer United States automobile manufacturer based in Cleveland, Ohio. Winton was one of the first American companies to sell a motor car. In 1912 Winton became one of the first American manufacturers ...

. In the following decades, the Andersons purchased at least thirty-two new motorcars. Their collection also included twenty-four horse-drawn carriages and six

sleigh A sled, skid, sledge, or sleigh is a land vehicle that slides across a surface, usually of ice or snow. It is built with either a smooth underside or a separate body supported by two or more smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners s ...

s. As their cars became obsolete, the Andersons retired them to the Carriage House of their estate in

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern a ...

. By 1927, the Andersons opened the Carriage House to the public for tours of their vehicles. When Isabel Anderson died in 1948, she bequeathed her entire Brookline estate (including mansion, carriage house, and land) to the Town of Brookline. She stipulated in her will that the motorcar collection be known as the "Larz Anderson Collection," and that a non-profit be given stewardship of the collection.

Carriage House

The Carriage House which the museum occupies was designed by the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

architect Edmund M. Wheelwright and completed in 1888. Its design was heavily influenced by the Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire in France. Gigantic in scale, the building stored carriages, housed horses, and served as home to stable staff who lived on the upper floor. Soon after the Andersons began collecting automobiles, they added a garage on the basement level for vehicle repair.

The Collection

Of the original thirty-two motor vehicles, the following fourteen remain in the collection: :*1899 Winton Phaeton :*1900

Rochet-Schneider Rochet-Schneider was a French company, based in Lyons, that produced automobiles between 1894 and 1932. The Rochet-Schneider sales slogan was "strength, simplicity and silence". Like other motorcars of the Brass Era, the cars made by Roche ...

:*1901 Winton Bullet :*1903

Gardner-Serpollet Gardner-Serpollet was a French manufacturer of steam-powered cars in the early 20th century. Léon Serpollet is credited with inventing and perfecting the flash boiler in the late 1800s.Electromobile :*1906 Charron-Girodot et Voigt :*1907 Fiat :*190
Bailey
:*1910

Panhard et Levassor Panhard was a French motor vehicle manufacturer that began as one of the first makers of automobiles. It was a manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its final incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks Defense, was formed b ...

:*1912

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...

:*1916

Packard Twin Six The Packard Twelve was a range of V12-engined luxury automobiles built by the Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit, Michigan. The car was built from model year 1916 until 1923, then it returned 1933 until 1939. As a sign of changing times, the m ...

:*1924 Renault Torpedo :*192
Luxor Taxi
:*1926 Lincoln Limousine

Non-motorized transports

In addition to some of the original horse-drawn carriages and sleighs owned by the Andersons or their Weld forebears, the museum is home to the vintage bicycle collection of Dr. Ralph W. Galen, a local cycling enthusiast.The Boston Globe
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Events

The museum sponsors a variety of activities throughout the year that attract enthusiasts of specific motor vehicles from throughout the Northeastern United States, many of whom arrive in their own rare vehicles to a gathering of like-minded hobbyists. A sampling of these events include British Car Day, Cadillac Day, Corvette Day, German Car Day, Swedish Car Day, Antique Car Day, Tutto Italiano (an event specializing in Italian automobiles), Japanese Car Day, Miata Day, Micro Mini Day, Extinct Auto Day, and many more. A complete listing of the Lawn Events can be found on the Museum's website (www.larzanderson.org). The museum also attracts visitors with lectures on various subjects relating to transportation or local history, as well as musical entertainment in "The Carriage House Concert Series". The museum began offering "rolling" events, which are organized drives for museum members and other automotive enthusiasts. There have been both overnight events, in which participants travel together and stay overnight in a hotel or inn, as well as single-day events, that originate in the greater Boston area and take members to a destination, usually within 2 to 2.5 hours in distance.

Library

The Library and Archives at Larz Anderson Auto Museum are devoted to materials relating automobile, racing and motor transportation history. There are also some documents related to carriages, motorcycles and bicycles. The facility also houses an extensive archival holding of Packard Motor Company materials. The library is a repository for information related to the state and to the Andersons themselves, including a collection of books, plays, and volumes of poetry authored by Isabel Anderson.

Former history and holdings

In 1971, in cooperation with the Veteran Motor Car Club of America, the Andersons' carriage house became known as the Museum of Transportation, under the direction of Duncan Smith. Smith led a young, enthusiastic staff at this location for six years. He was especially proud of a multi-media presentation chronicling the invention and refinement of the bicycle; it was then the only world-class history of the bicycle on exhibit in the United States. The museum's halls featured rotating exhibits of automobiles, motorcycles, carriages, and bicycles. The museum's collection of antique-auto newsreel footage broadened into a library of vintage movie comedies, displaying vehicles of the 1920s in motion. Museum visitors had the opportunity to see high-wheeled-bicycle demonstrations, and ride in a vintage-1937 fire engine named for

Boston Pops The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart. Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Sym ...

conductor and firefighting-memorabilia enthusiast

Arthur Fiedler Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 – July 10, 1979) was an American conductor known for his association with both the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one ...

. The Museum of Transportation at Larz Anderson Park closed on December 31, 1977, and effected a partnership with The Children's Museum of Boston. The museum reopened in 1979, sharing space with The Children's Museum at Museum Wharf in downtown

, but the joint venture was short-lived and the antique-auto contingent returned to its Anderson Park home in the 1980s. Since then the museum continues to showcase exceptional examples of vintage motor vehicles. While maintaining the most precious "gems" of the original Larz Anderson Auto Collection, the museum no longer has the following: 1905 Walter Tractor & Victoria Carriage, 1907 Walter Brougham, 1910 American Underslung (designed by Harry Stutz), 1913 Hudson 33, 1917 Ford Model T Estate Wagon, 1918 Dodge, 1920 Dodge Truck, 1920 Dodge Hackney, 1924 Dodge Sedan, 1928 Nash Advanced Six, 1930 Packard Limousine, 1931 REO Flying Cloud 6-21, 1936 Dodge Station Wagon, 1938 Dodge Express Truck, 1939 GMC Truck, 1940 Ford Deluxe Wagon, 1941 Packard Suburban, 1947 Pontiac Sedan and the 1948 Ford Super Deluxe Wagon.

References

Bibliography

*Anderson, Larz: ''Letters and Journals of a Diplomat'', New York, 1940. *Anderson, Isabella ''Under the Black Horse Flag'', Boston, 1926 *Del Tredici, Peter: "Early American Bonsai: The Larz Anderson Collection of the Arnold Arboretum", ''Arnoldia'' (Summer 1989)

External links

Larz Anderson Auto Museum website

{{authority control Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Automobile museums in Massachusetts Museums in Brookline, Massachusetts Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Brookline, Massachusetts Carriage houses on the National Register of Historic Places