Sorry, but the snowstorm kinda bumped part 2 forward and now in all it's glory I present PART 1.
Been reading about the planned classic car museum in NJ and after years it just appeared and just as fast it was closed. They had a location, but permits and problems made it impossible. They did get a small space next to the NJ Boating museum in Point Pleasant NJ and sadly opened 2 weeks before the Sandy superstorm, saved the cars, but the building was damaged. Good news as they have reopened. They are a nice bunch of guys and have great intentions, but the museum is rather small. They do more of a traveling exhibit at schools and car shows and hope they do grow over the years. Admission is free!
Somewhere in my minds back file room I remembered something about a classic car museum and farm?? I remember a billboard and TV ads for Space Farms Zoo and Museum? All research said it was closed and recently a forum spoke it about being closed, but I decided to do some detective work. It never closed, but is CLOSED for the winter season every year. I found this just in time as they were closing in a week for the season. In Sussex NJ Space is the family name and Ralph Space operated the family dairy farm, but also collected cars into the 50's and they are all still on display. Its another of those crazy stories where a successful business man decides to display his passions, cars, animals, period clothing and hunting trophies. It seems these were tributes to the pioneer and entrepreneur spirit this country once had. There is a gift shop and restaurant, it looks like more properties surrounded that the Space family owns, even a taxidermy shop. I was surprised as I wandered the grounds, an Eagle Cornerstone from the original Grand Central station, some old buildings and real life animals which included Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh my! Some Ducks greeted me and a Kangaroo wondered over. It is a great place to take the family as you wander the buildings. Try and find the house cat that lives with an unexpected room mate. To be honest I am not sure how happy some of the animals are although they are beautiful to see.
Oddly enough the car collection features some very rare cars, but they are not restored and appear to have been parked back in a time when they were actually still being driven. Very cool to see them like this! Ask anyone in NJ and they will tell you there is no Antique Car Museum in NJ, the guys in the new museum had no idea Space Farms was still open, maybe they should hook up with Space Farms,adopt the collection and expand?
This is snow country was a preview of what else this CARHUNT Safari found, it's in part 2.
Reminds me of Harold Warp's Pioneer Village in Minden Nebraska.
I'll definitely try to go with the kids there one day. Looks very interesting and relatively close.
ReplyDelete