The Last Days of the Chrysler Museum

One of my favorite places to travel to in the US is Detroit, Michigan. I love the amount of automotive history that surrounds you wherever you go. The city and surrounding areas are full of assembly plants and museums, and James and I have been to most of them. The most elusive museum, however, has been the Chrysler Museum. It shut its doors in 2012 due to low attendance, and it did not appear that it would ever reopen.

I grew up in a Chrysler household, so seeing the museum was very important to me. My first car was a 1996 Jeep Cherokee Sport, which I still proudly own. He sits in the driveway next to his younger brother - my 2012 Patriot. I also grew up riding in my dad's Jeep Comanche and 1992 Dakota pickup. I learned to drive in our Plymouth van, and my dad was heartbroken when he eventually sold his 2001 Dakota, which he bought brand new after trading in his old Dakota at the local dealership. He says he's never had another vehicle like it. Those cars never let us down.

In early 2016, James and I learned that the Chrysler Museum was reopening on a limited schedule of two weekends a month, and we both agreed we needed to try to attend. Then we learned several months later that the limited schedule was not enough to keep the museum in business. Chrysler also decided that the building that the museum occupied was needed for an office space expansion of their headquarters, so it had to go. A final schedule was released, leaving the museum to close in December of 2016 for the final time.

With our trip to Japan over and done with, we had a decent amount of reward miles that we could spend, so we coordinated a weekend that fit into the museum's schedule and purchased plane tickets. The weekend that happened to be available was the very last weekend they were to be open. After that Saturday and Sunday, the museum would permanently cease operations. I was both sad and proud that I could be there to see it for the first and last time.

I recorded videos of each of the three stories of the museum - the first floor, second floor, and basement. You can watch them here:

First floor

Second floor

Basement

There is also an online photo album in case you wanted to read some of the description signs that were with the cars - you can see it here.