Auburn, Indiana, credibly bills itself as the home of the classics, and its cruise nights prove that out. On Auburn weekend (also known around the rest of the country as Labor Day weekend), the action picked up around the town square around 5 p.m., a place that’s awash in history of all sorts. Before it became famous for building the greatest American cars ever, Auburn suffered through a freak storm circa 1872 that destroyed part of its downtown. Today, it is spotless, and lined with the city’s products.
Don’t see a “Don’t Touch” sign, do you? There’s probably no place else you can get breath-fog close to a concours Duesenberg such as this.
Some of the rolling stock is the more expected sort of cruise fare, such as this 1960 Buick LeSabre convertible. The building in the background is a legitimate historic site, the Auburn police station. On October 14, 1933, the John Dillinger gang stormed the station and made off with a haul of firearms, ammo and bulletproof vests. One day earlier, Dillinger’s fellow outlaws, led by Harry Pierpont, had broken him out of a jail in nearby Lima, Ohio, killing the county sheriff. The guy in the police uniform behind the Buick is actually a piece of sculpture.