Big automotive museums get a lot of press, and rightfully so; they’re big, and that’s impressive. Many museums exceed 100,000 square feet in size, and a few are even larger.

I can see how easy it would be to fill a larger building with automotive history. I went from a 7,500 square foot building to a 30,000 square foot museum in just a few years at Miles Through Time Automotive Museum.

My goal for MTT is a 100,000 square foot building, which is not a 100,000 square foot museum. About 25,000sqft would be taken up by Vintage Garage Antiques, which is what I created to help support the nonprofit museum and act as a giant gift shop.

About 30,000sqft will be vehicle storage for the museum, which we don’t currently have. This will allow the museum to rotate donated vehicles in and out of the museum, and have a place to work on them. Plus, we could do a guided storage tour add-on, which would be pretty cool.

That only leaves about 45,000sqft for the museum itself and a dedicated library/event space. In reality, the museum itself wouldn’t be that much larger, but the additional space for everything else is what will ensure the museum can operate better. 

Of course, if I had access to a 200,000sqft building, I could still fill it, but at what point does it become too big? Sometimes, bigger isn’t necessary.

Clifford’s Mini Auto Museum isn’t a huge museum. You may have guessed that by the name of the museum. This museum is the size of an old gas station, and that is exactly what it was, when William Clifford purchased it in 1982.

William didn’t purchase the building to create a museum. His plan was actually to demolish it to add additional parking for his funeral home business next door. Fortunately, his account advised him of an alternative option, which led William to start storing his vintage cars and other memorabilia in the old station. William passed away in 2006, but his family still keeps the museum open for visitors.

The Midwest Microcar Museum is a different kind of small. The museum’s building definitely doesn’t have to be huge to fit a bunch of microcars on display. In fact, this museum’s building isn’t huge, and it’s very unassuming, but it is historic and charming. 

I find microcars fascinating. One of these days, I’ll get a Messerschmitt for Miles Through Time. I keep seeing them at other museums, and I just think they are cool.

One more small museum for you isn’t actually that small. The Columbus Collective Museums is a collective of five museums that are all together. The Lunch Box Museum, the Hatcher Family Cola Museum, the Tom Hutson Peanut Museum, the Georgia Radio Museum & Hall of Fame, and the Car Museum.

Allen M. Woodall, Jr. is the man who started all of these museums. I’ve had the privilege of visiting and meeting Allen and his granddaughter, Kaitlynn, who runs the museums now. 

The car museum isn’t huge, but there are some neat cars on display, including an original Tesla Roadster, which almost seems out of place. (I did offer to take it to Miles Through Time for them) The car collection, combined with the artifacts, history and various collections in the other museums definitely makes this museum worthy of visiting.

Plan your next trip, discover your new favorite, or find the nearest museum

 Sean Mathis
Creator of Automotive Museum Guide
Founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum

P.S. Make sure you follow AMG on Facebook and join the FB Group to see what’s going on at all the museums.