Gilmore Museum, Kalamazoo
Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2026 1:50 pm
Not much posted here so here's what we did last weekend:
Rob, Lee, Amber, Amber's dog, and I went to the Gilmore last weekend and camped on-site for a couple of nights for a double show- Saturday was the German car show, Sunday was a British car show. They had 600 cars last year for the German show so it's a big one, they claim the largest in the US. I should have taken more pictures but I didn't.
Anyway, the Gilmore is a world class museum with a whole campus covering dozens of acres and about 15 buildings funded by a guy who sold Upjohn Pharmaceutical way back when. They have camping on-site which is really cheap and convenient with electric up to 40 amp. The bathrooms are brand new and beautiful but no showers. The campus includes about 3 main museum buildings, 3 or 4 repro auto dealerships from the '30's, a Shell station, diner and multiple other smaller barns dedicated to an antique make. It's really something to see if you haven't been there. This is my 5th trip with many to come, and my second time camping. Their activity schedule is full year-round, car shows regularly all summer and even regular presentations all winter. Every building is an exercise not in "how cheap can we build it" but more like "how much money can we spend on this building". They've put up 3 new buildings since I was last there and there's a brand new pavilion that looks more like a church than a pavilion.....
https://gilmorecarmuseum.org/
It was a great weekend, perfect weather, all terrific except Amber's dog died in their bus on the way home. Very sad....
Rob, Lee, Amber, Amber's dog, and I went to the Gilmore last weekend and camped on-site for a couple of nights for a double show- Saturday was the German car show, Sunday was a British car show. They had 600 cars last year for the German show so it's a big one, they claim the largest in the US. I should have taken more pictures but I didn't.
Anyway, the Gilmore is a world class museum with a whole campus covering dozens of acres and about 15 buildings funded by a guy who sold Upjohn Pharmaceutical way back when. They have camping on-site which is really cheap and convenient with electric up to 40 amp. The bathrooms are brand new and beautiful but no showers. The campus includes about 3 main museum buildings, 3 or 4 repro auto dealerships from the '30's, a Shell station, diner and multiple other smaller barns dedicated to an antique make. It's really something to see if you haven't been there. This is my 5th trip with many to come, and my second time camping. Their activity schedule is full year-round, car shows regularly all summer and even regular presentations all winter. Every building is an exercise not in "how cheap can we build it" but more like "how much money can we spend on this building". They've put up 3 new buildings since I was last there and there's a brand new pavilion that looks more like a church than a pavilion.....
https://gilmorecarmuseum.org/
It was a great weekend, perfect weather, all terrific except Amber's dog died in their bus on the way home. Very sad....