Turns out the antique car museum is one of those hidden tourist
treasures. For just $5 visitors can wander endlessly among more than
80 classic old cars, crammed tightly into the unassuming space. It’s
cars everywhere you look, the collection of the Gould family who
started in 1946 with a Stanley Steamer (7.5 horsepower built in
1904), and haven’t stopped yet. There’s a Pierce Arrow, a Stutz
Bearcat, Model T, runabouts from 1900, a 1908 Baker Electric with
the original working Edison batteries, a Chrysler Town &
Country, a sleek 1935 Lagonda, a tiny 1908 Renault, and names like
Rolls Royce, Avanti, Maxwell, Stutz, Metz, Cadillac, plus all the
standards.

In addition to motorcycles, old auto signs, model cars, vintage
bicycles, there’s two things we love best. The Wells Museum has a
great collection of nickelodeon machines that really work (for
a dime or a quarter). You can see tame peep shows with early models
in bathing suits or play some of the oldest arcade games ever. Old
metal music boxes, forerunners of the juke box, lend the perfect
sound effects, along with player pianos – including one automated
violin playing machine.
This time we brought along our disposable camera to catch a few
images of visitors – young and older – exploring this amazing
collection. If you never stopped, now you must, car buff or not.
It’s a gas! -- JDR
All photos and text by J. Dennis
Robinson
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