ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Business at a stateline museum that blends history with entertainment is booming after a major expansion project.
Historic Auto Attractions, 13825 Metric Road in Roscoe, opened 22 years ago and has since grown into one of the most unique museums in the country.
Featuring historic automobiles and other artifacts, it added a 50,000 square feet of space and more exhibits last year.
”Some of the newer items would be Animal Kingdom,” said Museum Director Alex Merry. “We have the 911 Memorial, which was just recently added.”
The facility now spans 87,000 square feet and has even more to complement the world’s largest collection of presidential and world leader limousines and sees about 80 visitors a day.
“We are booming,” Merry said. “We are growing. We are headed in the right direction.”
Historic Auto Attractions started when owner Wayne Lensing mixed his passion for cars with history. Today, it’s truly a family affair. His children and grandchildren are all part of the business.
”I mainly clean the windows, sometimes get in the displays and clean all the dust, the cars,” said 12-year-old Ella Lensing, Wayne’s granddaughter.
Ella is literally growing up at the museum and says her grandpa is full of surprises.
“More buildings, more exhibIts, more cars. You don’t know what he brings up next,” she said.
Merry added that visitors come from all over the United States.
“I read online years ago about a chunk of Jimmy Dean’s car that he died in is here,” said Kimberly Reams, of Mason City, Iowa.
Merry says it’s the museum’s vast variety that continue to attract people like Reams every day.
“They would much rather travel here than go to one of the larger cities,” she said.
Some notable exhibits at Historic Auto Attractions include the squad car from “The Andy Griffith Show,” Elvis Presley’s personal Lincoln Continental and one of the largest John F. Kennedy collections in the United States. The museum is open six days a week.
