Announcing your grand opening date more than a year in advance may not be typical for most automotive museums, but then again, the LeMay – America’s Car Museum is no typical automotive museum.
The gargantuan LeMay, based on the 3,500-car collection of the late Harold LeMay, will have its grand opening on May 19, 2012. Construction is currently about 75 percent finished on the four-story, 165,000-square-foot museum itself, located on a nine-acre campus in Tacoma, Washington. When finished, the LeMay will have 15 galleries housing up to 500 cars, trucks and motorcycles from private owners, corporations and the LeMay collection, with constantly rotating exhibits. The museum will also include a gift shop, banquet center and cafe, an educational center/library, and an adjoining 3.5-acre show field able to accommodate automotive gatherings and even drive-in movies.
The $60 million project, construction of which began in June of last year and should wrap up this August, is expected to be the largest auto museum in the world when completed, and will bring an estimated 425,000 visitors and some $34 million to the local economy annually.
David Madeira, president and CEO of the museum, said that the LeMay will be focused on “America’s love affair with the automobile.”
Everybody remembers their first car, family driving vacations, a sports car they fell in love with as a teenager. Personal experiences with cars are part of life in America, and with assistance from the Harold and Nancy LeMay family collection, we’ll spotlight more than a century of automotive history.
The LeMay collection can currently be viewed at the Marymount Event Center in Tacoma and through special exhibits such as the microcar exhibit at this year’s New York International Auto Show.
For more information about the LeMay – America’s Car Museum, visit www.lemaymuseum.com.