The Pontiac Transportation Museum in Pontiac, Michigan has opened its doors to the public as of May 16th, 2024, with the typical price of admission set at $10 for adults, as described in a new video that includes a sneak peak of vehicles being prepped for future displays.
Located on West Pike Street, the museum shines a spotlight on the pivotal history of the city in the early automotive era, covering brands such as the Oakland Motor Car Company that was a forerunner to the iconic brand, as well as the Pontiac brand itself.
The museum will cover more than a century of the city’s history in the auto industry, with displays showing cars, trucks, and motorcycles from the 51 brands linked to the area. The facility includes 50,000 square feet, which will be opened to the public in three phases. The first phase, which just began operations, has 12,000 square feet of displays and a gift shop.
Subsequent phases will open more of the museum building and new displays to public viewing. Eventually, 75 vehicles will be accessible to the public, along with displays about the industry itself and its local impact. Among the unusual vehicles at the site are “a 1907 12-passenger Rapid Pullman coach, a circa 1900 Pontiac Buggy Company single-seat carriage, […] 1917 Olympian, a 1929 Oakland, a 1940 GMC pickup, a 1948 Whizzer motorbike, and a 1986 Vixen motorhome.” The museum also houses the last Pontiac ever built, a white 2010 G6 sedan.
The museum has been launched thanks to the efforts of collector and Pontiac enthusiast Tim Dye, whose quest to commemorate the city’s automotive past was first covered by GM Authority in 2021. Dye is now the museum’s executive director, and says “the facility was donated by a local resident to tell the story of how the Pontiac region became a powerhouse of transportation manufacturing.”
The museum’s Board of Directors chair, Terry Connolly, says “Pontiac has made an outsized contribution to US and even world history,” and hopes that the site will “educate our own community and draw heritage tourism” to the Michigan city.
You can watch the preview video here:
A variety of owner’s clubs have already held Pontiac-related events at the museum and a list of additional events is planned for the near future. The museum also offers space for gatherings, including weddings.
The museum is open each week from 10 AM to 6 PM Thursday through Saturday, and noon to 5 PM Sunday.
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Comments
Bring back Pontiac!
Pontiac and Olds built some great cars. Now it’s just “vanilla”.
Gray “vanilla” .
There is also a Pontiac-Oakland car museum in Pontiac, Illinois that Tim Dye helped start around 12 years ago. I visited it and there was a good collection of cars. You can check it out on the internet.
Tim Dye is a great guy. Probably one of the most dedicated-to-Pontiac enthusiasts alive.
Never been to Pontiac, but now knowing about this museum I’m going to change that this year.
You should have seen Pontiac (the city) back in the day. It is now just a shadow of it’s former self sine gm more or less pulled out.
They allowed Pontiac to die on the vine with nothing but rebadged Chevys even before government ordered killing of the at one time great brand. “We Build Excitement “, not a zillion 3/4 cylinder suv/cuv’s.
If they existed today, it would be nothing but rebadged Equinox and Trax
History creates the future. Sad GM forgot theirs.