The Northeast Classic Car Museum in Norwich is getting a facelift to reflect what is inside the building.
Brothers Mike and Dan O'Reilly of Principle Design & Engineering of Norwich were given the task of redesigning the outside of the building in Chenango County. The building looked like a warehouse and didn't look like a museum, Mike said. The museum is located near other museums in Norwich, but it didn't look like a museum, he said.
"The building didn't reflect that there is $30 million worth of vehicles inside," Mike said. "We were hired to come up with a concept. We started by blowing off the front of the building."
Dan said "we looked at designs of old car dealerships and settled on a 1940s GM dealership as our model."
Mike said it took about three months to come up with the completed design. The front of the building will have two garage doors and a curved glass display room on one side, and the main entrance of the museum and a cafe with a curved front on the other side. One of the main attractions in the display room will be a working turntable that was donated to the museum built into the floor, Mike said.
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The cost of the renovations is $1.5 million, Dan said.
Mike said when they talked to contractors about the curved structure he said he was told it wasn't done any more, but they were able to find a contractor and a glass company in the state that were up to the challenge. Wakeman Construction Companies of Sidney was hired to do the renovations.
"It takes a lot of work, skilled work," museum President Dick Schutt said. "Workers had to curve the steel using a crimping tool."
Schutt said the museum will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year and the board wanted to "make the outside look like the inside. We have a world class exhibit here."
Schutt said the museum houses 170 cars and 30 motorcycles in its five buildings. The museum has two full-time and four part-time employees and the rest are volunteers, he said. It is open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Only four cars in the museum are not American made.
"The oldest car in the museum is an 1899 Leggett, one of two made in Syracuse by the Leggett Carriage Company," Schutt said. "The newest is a 1981 DeLorean. That is one of the four not built in the U.S. It was built in Ireland. I tell people we don't have a flux capacitor so they can't go 'Back to the Future.'"
In addition, the museum houses two very early electric cars from 1910 and 1914, and one steam-powered car.
"If you didn't live in an urban area it was hard to recharge your car, so they weren't popular," Schutt said. "The steam cars lasted 20 miles before you needed to get more water to put in the engine."
A majority of the cars on display came from the Staley family, Schutt said. When the museum opened, the 50 cars the Staleys donated filled one building. Throughout the years, the museum has been able to purchase adjoining warehouse buildings to house the cars.
The museum gets about 17,000 visitors per year from around the world including Europe, the Middle East and Australia, Schutt said. "It's a museum you plan to go to," he said. "There is no interstate highway nearby."
Dan said the newly-designed cafe will have big garage doors so it can be opened in the summer and can be used for events. Two antique gas pumps will be placed in front of the cafe, and the sidewalk was designed to make it look like a road to the pumps.
"Our future plan is to hold outdoor events," Schutt said. "Saturday morning cars and coffee or a weeknight ice cream social and cruise in."
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Upstate NY classic car museum getting $1.5 million tuneup - Auburn Citizen
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