Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum

The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum, in Auburn, Indiana, houses a collection of more than 120 vintage vehicles, several aircraft engines, a single vintage motorcycle, and the Cord Corporation restored offices and automobile showroom. Located 140 miles northeast of Indianapolis, the museum was a convenient stop for us as we made our way north to Goshen to visit with Janus Motorcycles and their modern vintage Halcyon 450. Auburn, population 14,000, is an interesting town that loves its automotive culture. During our visit, we observed vintage cars being used as daily drivers and several buildings downtown with classic automobile wall murals. It is a cool place.

We did not know it at first, but there is a connection between the three marques included in the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum’s name. They were all managed from the very building that is now the museum. Here is a quick recap of how it came to be: The Auburn Automobile Company built its first automobile in 1903. In 1919, a group of Chicago investors (including William Wrigley, of chewing gum fame) purchased the Auburn Automobile Company. Duesenberg, originally located in New Jersey, moved its operations to Indianapolis in 1921. That same year, Auburn hired a successful young salesman named Errett Lobban Cord, who became the Auburn president in 1926. Cord purchased Duesenberg, hired Duesenberg brothers August and Fred, and appointed Fred Duesenberg Auburn’s Vice President of Engineering. Mr. Cord created the Cord Corporation in 1929 (with the Duesenberg and Auburn companies as subsidiaries), and the newly named Cord Corporation started producing Cords (the first mass-produced front wheel drive cars in America). In 1930, the Cord Corporation built a 100,000-square-foot headquarters in Auburn that included its engineering and executive offices and a stunning art deco showroom. It was this building that would become the museum.

The early 1930s were the Cord Corporation and Auburn’s golden era (in fact, the town became known as Little Detroit). Cord had more than a hundred dealers and its best year ever in 1931, building 34,000 automobiles, but things quickly went south. Auburn and Duesenberg production ended in 1936 and Cord production ceased with a bankruptcy filing the following year. Several owners followed, including the Marshall Clothing Company, an organization that tried but could not sell the corporate headquarters building. The Auburn Automotive Heritage group formed in 1969 and started raising funds with the intent of restoring the headquarters building as a museum. While this was occurring, the building became a motorcycle shop in 1973. After a 1974 fire Auburn Automotive Heritage purchased the building and created the museum. It became an Indiana State Historic Site in 1992 and a National Historic Landmark in 2005. The one vintage motorcycle mentioned above is a 1933 250cc single-cylinder BSA, Mr. Cord’s personal motorcycle. Cord kept the motorcycle on his Nevada ranch and on his yacht.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and found the museum to be a most worthwhile destination. You can easily spend three or four hours in the museum; an entire day there would not be out of the question. It is that interesting.