(AP)
Hickory Corners, Mich. A new Ford dealership opened up in southwestern Michigan.
Actually, it’s a very old one.
The Model A Ford Museum held its grand opening ceremony last weekend.
Fashioned after a Ford dealership from 1928, the 12,000-square-foot museum sits on the Gilmore Car Museum campus in Hickory Corners, about 115 miles west of Detroit.
The new facility is the world’s largest public museum dedicated to the Model A, according to marketing director Jay Follis.
The Model A was built in the late 1920s and early 1930s following the wild success of Ford’s Model T.
“The Model A is a car that all can relate to,” Michael Spezia, executive director of the Gilmore Car Museum, said in a statement. “It was an affordable and very popular automobile that has been owned and enjoyed by millions of people.”
People from all across the country attended the grand opening, MLive.com reported, and several hundred Model A vehicles were driven to Hickory Corners for it.
The Model A Ford Foundation Inc. raised more than $1 million toward the construction of the museum.
Highlights include:
— A Model A that was driven off the assembly line by Henry Ford in 1927 and presented to inventor Thomas Edison.
— A 1930 Model A school bus that originally served the El Monte, Calif., school district.
— An original postal service delivery truck and a unique dual powered-axle truck that was used in building the Hoover Dam.