Antique Auto Museum Plans Given Boost

Plans for an antique-automobile museum in Balboa Park have been advanced by approval of the idea by the San Diego City Council and a subcommittee of the Park and Recreation Board.

Final approval of the $2.8-million project will be decided by the Park and Recreation Board in December after the board receives the environmental impact report. Dan Biggs, head of the museum planning group, said he hasn’t heard of any significant environmental problems and is optimistic about the plan’s approval.

Museum plans call for renovating the Conference Building next to the Aerospace Museum and building an addition. The museum will house as many as 120 cars, a restoration shop and a resource library.

Reid Carroll, president of the museum committee, said a core collection of about 40 cars will be loaned by Ralph Engelstad of Las Vegas. He has about 400 cars in his collection, and he will loan them to the museum on a rotating basis. Local collectors’ cars also will be shown.

Carroll said several of the cars Engelstad is lending are significant to San Diego history. One of them is the safari bus used by Frank (Bring ‘em Back Alive) Buck, once an executive for Ryan Aeronauticals, and famous in the 1930s for capturing animals for zoos. Another is a 1931 Lincoln Tomcat used by the founder of Sharp Memorial Hospital.

“The idea is to keep the museum filled with things that we can identify with,” Biggs said. “We don’t want it to be a stuffy collection.” There will be some theme exhibits showing trends in cars.

Biggs said the automotive enthusiasts who planned the museum did not want it to be “just a place to come and look at cars,” and made the library an integral part of the plans. Collectors often have difficulty finding details on how to restore their cars, and the library would have a “wealth of information,” Biggs said.

Biggs is optimistic about raising funds for the museum through donations. Just under $10,000 has been collected in 45 days, he said, and the major fund-raisers won’t occur until after the park board makes its decision.

The first donation to the library--$250 and two books--was given last week by the regional office of the Auto Club of Southern California. Carroll said he has recently been offered gifts of a Stanley Steamer and a 1915 Pierce Arrow.

“People recognize us as credible, and we are getting more donations,” Carroll said.

One obstacle to museum plans is dealing with displacement of several programs that use the Conference Building, such as recreation leagues for the disabled, a table tennis league and folk dancing groups. Biggs said the environmental consultants have found places for some and are continuing the search.

“It’s true that there are about a dozen programs, but the number of people is rather small when considering the efficiency of a public building,” Biggs said.

The museum is expected to attract 330,000 to 500,000 people a year.