NEWS

Private Car Collections on Tour in Bloomington

Indiana Automotive, an affinity group of Indiana Landmarks, hosts a Bloomington tour on July 8 that visits two local auto collections and includes a look at a very early car manufactured in the city.

The tour first stops in to see Norm Deckard’s five crème of the crop favorites, kept when he winnowed from the much larger collection he once owned. He held onto a 1913 Rambler, for example, and “a bright pink and snow white Crown Victoria” from 1955, a watershed year in post-World War II automotive design.

Tour participants will visit Tom Martin’s private collection of ‘50s and ‘60s autos in a museum-like setting. Martin’s favorites—unrestored survivors—include a ’63 Ford Country Squire wagon, a ’60 Impala convertible, and a ’56 T-bird with only 3,000 miles on the odometer. Petroleum-related artifacts—neon and other signs, gas pumps and more—add to the atmosphere.

Between the two collections, Carl Cook will show the replica he created of the 1897 Howe Horseless Carriage, a car manufactured in Bloomington. He calls his Series 2, since only one Howe is known to have been produced. The group will have lunch in Fountain Square Ballroom overlooking the courthouse square in Bloomington.

The Indiana Automotive affinity group celebrates the state’s early auto visionaries and the cars they made, and works to preserve their factories, showrooms, homes, and the landscaped parkways and roadside architecture birthed by the auto age.

The tour, which runs from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., costs $45 per member of Indiana Automotive, $50 per Indiana Landmarks member, and $60 for the general public. Tickets must be purchased in advance, online at www.indianalandmarks.org or by calling 317-639-4534.

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Media contacts: Tina Connor, Indiana Landmarks Executive Vice President, 317-639-4534, tconnor@indianalandmarks.org; Jen Thomas, jen@jtprinc.com, 317-441-2487

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Indiana Landmarks revitalizes communities, reconnects us to our heritage, and saves meaningful places. With nine offices located throughout the state, Indiana Landmarks helps people rescue endangered landmarks and restore historic neighborhoods and downtowns. People who join Indiana Landmarks receive its bimonthly magazine, Indiana Preservation. For more information on the not-for-profit organization, call 317-639-4534, 800-450-4534, or visit www.indianalandmarks.org.

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