Auburn, Indiana’s old car showroom still looks ready to sell you a Duesenberg: Here’s what to know

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Auburn’s showroom still shows off cars

You walk into a building where car dealers once sold Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs to the wealthiest buyers in America, and the building still does exactly that job. More than 120 classic and antique cars fill three floors of the former Auburn Automobile Company headquarters in Auburn, Indiana. The place opened as a museum on July 6, 1974, and it’s a National Historic Landmark now, ranked among the finest Art Deco buildings anywhere in the Midwest. Step through the doors and you land straight in 1929, surrounded by machines built for people who never worried about the price tag. Wikimedia Commons/Greg Gjerdingen

The Company That Built Auburn’s Fame

Auburn built cars in this town from the early 1900s until 1937, turning out Auburns, front-wheel-drive Cords, and helping produce the Duesenberg, a name that still means something to anyone who loves old cars. Fort Wayne architect Alvin M. Strauss designed the headquarters in 1929, giving the company a building as bold as its cars. Then the Great Depression hit, and the company couldn’t survive it. The building sat empty and worn down for years afterward. Eventually a group of people who cared about the history restored it piece by piece, and what you walk through today is the result of that work. Wikimedia Commons/ElleFire87

Step Into the Original 1929 Showroom

You enter through the same showroom where salesmen once pitched Auburns to customers, and it still serves that purpose today. A terrazzo floor spreads across the room in a geometric pattern of gray-green, off-white, and oxblood, laid out under tiered glass chandeliers and wall sconces. Look up and you’ll catch hand-painted friezes running along the upper walls and ceiling. Nothing about this room got repurposed into something else. It still shows off finished cars the exact way it did in 1929, just with different cars on the floor now. Shutterstock

Climb the Same Stairs E.L. Cord Climbed

A staircase rises from the center of the showroom up to the mezzanine and second floor, built from gray-green terrazzo with Art Deco ironwork worked into the railings. E.L. Cord walked these steps. So did the company’s designers and the employees who worked here during the Auburn Automobile Company years. You get to climb the same staircase now, on your way up to the galleries above. Cameras come out here more than almost anywhere else in the building, and once you’re standing on it, you’ll understand why.

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Meet the Mighty Duesenberg

The showroom holds cars from the classic era, 1925 to 1937, and the Duesenberg Model J sits near the top of that story. Wealthy buyers of the era treated the Model J as the car to own, and the museum keeps several Duesenbergs on display in restored, gleaming condition. One boattail Duesenberg X stands out even among the rest of the collection. These aren’t replicas or stand-ins. You’re looking at the actual machines that defined American luxury during a period when a Duesenberg meant you’d truly arrived. Wikimedia Commons/Indiana Landmarks

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Favorite Ride

Frank Lloyd Wright loved the Cord L-29 so much that he bought one in 1929, calling its design one of the most beautiful and logical he’d ever seen. The museum’s 1930 Cord L-29 belonged to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation rather than Wright personally, and its bright orange paint got matched during restoration, though it isn’t the exact shade Wright preferred. He actually favored a rusty orange he called Cherokee Red, a color you can spot on his 1952 Crosley elsewhere in the museum. The L-29 itself broke ground with front-wheel drive, a feature that was rare for its time. Shutterstock

Cars That Once Belonged to the Famous

Celebrities of the 1920s and 1930s gravitated toward Auburns and Cords, drawn in by looks that turned heads wherever the cars went. The museum’s 1926 Auburn 8-88 Roadster nearly matches one that Babe Ruth once owned, and a 1937 Cord 812 on display recalls the model aviator Amelia Earhart drove. Bold styling made these cars magnets for famous owners back then, and that same styling still stops people in their tracks today. You don’t need to know the history to feel pulled toward these cars. The shapes alone do most of the talking. Shutterstock

Where the Cord 810 Took Shape

This building once held the company’s engineering and design studios, and you can walk into the very room where designer Gordon Buehrig created the first Cord 810 using clay models. Original drawings and renderings from that era hang on display around the space. Standing there, you’re looking at the spot where sketches turned into shapes, and shapes turned into cars that people still talk about decades later. The room makes clear how much engineering had to back up all that glamour before a single Cord ever hit the road. Wikimedia Commons/Aaron headly

The Hall of Technology

This gallery traces how the company’s engineers kept pushing car design further, year after year. You’ll find Duesenberg marine and aircraft engines on display alongside exhibits that connect racing technology to the cars everyday drivers eventually got to own. The Auburn Speedster and the Cord 810/812 both fit into that larger story of innovation trickling down from the track to the street. Many of the fine details on these cars still function the way they did decades ago, giving you a working look at engineering most people only read about.

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Indiana’s Own Car Building Story

One gallery steps back from Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg to honor the wider list of carmakers that once operated across Indiana. Some of these companies lasted only a handful of years before folding, while others managed to build lasting success. At one point, Indiana stood as a major center of American car manufacturing, and this display ties the museum into that bigger regional story. Rare, unusual makes sit right alongside the famous names you already know, giving you a fuller picture of just how much car history ran through this state. Wikimedia Commons/Sicnag

Racers Record-Setters and Rare Finds

The Gallery of Racers and Record-Setters puts the competitive side of the company on full display. The Samuel B. Stevens Trophy Cord headlines the room, joined by a supercharged Duesenberg Indianapolis racing car built for speed rather than showroom floors. The unusual William Stout IMP cycle car pulls plenty of attention too, an oddball among the more familiar names around it. Every car in this gallery existed to go fast and prove something, and standing among them, you get a different side of a company mostly known for luxury and style. Shutterstock

Honoring the Workers Who Built Them

A newer gallery shifts focus away from famous owners and onto the men and women who actually built these cars by hand. It occupies the final historic space of the original headquarters, closing out your walk through the building. Workers’ tools, coveralls, and personal objects fill the displays, backed by recorded oral histories from former employees who tell their own stories in their own words. The gallery gives particular attention to women whose work here was rare for the era, filling in a part of the story that often gets left out. Shutterstock

Visiting the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Indiana

You’ll find the museum at 1600 South Wayne Street in Auburn, Indiana, about 20 miles north of Fort Wayne and just off Interstate 69. It’s open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed only on New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Adult admission runs $12.50, kids under 18 pay $7.50, and children under 6 get in free. Parking is free too, with more than 100 spaces in the main lot near the entrance. Give yourself at least an hour or two to see all three floors. This article was created with AI assistance and human editing. Read more from this brand:

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