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From Primedia Publications

By Bev Farrar
Every Saturday morning when he was ten, John McQuown and his family drove from their farm south of town into Auburn, Indiana. They carried bags of grain for milling tied on the fenders. While his parents did the weekly chores, John raced over to the elegant, Art Deco showrooms of the Auburn Automobile Company, settled himself with squares of white wrapping paper from the previous week's purchases, and sketched the cars of the nation's dreams.

'It looks like it's in motion, doesn't it?'
"That was in 1932 and we were poor as church mice," McQuown says. "But the sales people were always nice to me and let me sit on the grand staircase where I could see all the wonderful cars."



Below the grand staircase today, McQuown guides visitors among the treasures of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, "Home of the Classics." With a slightly proprietary air, he points out the perfection of the 1937 Cord Phaeton, his personal favorite among the more than 130 jewels housed at the museum.

"It looks like it's in motion, doesn't it? It's alive, ready to do anything. Of course, I may be prejudiced," he concedes with a smile.

McQuown, a retired master mechanic of 48 years experience and volunteer guide at the museum, worked here on these cars from 1945 to '55, long after the original maker had fallen victim to the Great Depression. Now he happily labors again to convey the sense of wonder the machines of the '30s and '40s embodied for an earlier America.

Set in the tranquil countryside of northeast Indiana, Auburn seems an unlikely venue for a hot spot of innovative auto production, yet several horseless carriages and early cars originated here, and the first Auburn was produced for sale in 1903. By 1919 the troubled Auburn Auto-mobile Company was sold to a group of Chicago financiers. To salvage the faltering auto factory with its mounting inventory of unsold Auburns, they recruited the talents of Errett Lobban Cord in 1924, and the auto world was never the same.

Already a respected presence in auto circles, the 30-year-old E.L. Cord injected astute business acumen into the company along with a touch of brilliant innovation. He refined Auburn body designs, enlarged engines and emboldened paint schemes. Car sales tripled. Auburn stock soared. Having chosen stock options and profit percentages over salary, Cord owned a controlling interest in the company by 1926.

"If you can't be big, you have to be different," Cord declared as he started an ambitious foreign export program, opened a second plant in Connors-ville, Indiana, and in 1929 introduced the L-29 Cord, America's first front-wheel-drive production car.

He purchased the bankrupt Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company in 1926, told the press he would create "the finest thing on four wheels," and proceeded to do so. After commissioning the legendary Fred Duesenberg to develop the ultimate motorcar, Cord proudly debuted the Duesenberg Model J at the New York Automobile Salon for the 1929 model year.

Duesenberg. To those who know, the very name evokes luxury, grandeur and the sheer pleasure of motoring. Founded on a brilliant racing heritage — fastest qualifier at the Indy 500 in 1913, first American winner of the French Grand Prix at LeMans in 1921, winner of the Indy in 1924, 1925 and 1927 — the Duesenberg was the favorite of monarchs, millionaires and movie stars, and the daydream of just about everyone else. They were so admired, they inspired an expression of automotive admiration. The phrase "It's a duesy!" comes down to us as "It's a doozy!"

More than 75 percent of all Duesenbergs built still exist today, and 55 percent still run. With other masterpieces of the time, several share a permanent address at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum. Among them are a sleek black 1932 Duesenberg Speedster, a 1929 Duesenberg Dual Cowl Phaeton in rich burgundy and a 1932 Duesenberg Torpedo Convertible Coupe.

Less celebrated, except by aficionados, are the last brave bursts of innovative design and engineering from the company before the darkness of the Depression dimmed Cord's automotive success — the 1936 Cord 810 and 1937 Cord 812. Designer Gordon Buehrig abandoned conventional fashion with these models, planed off the visible running boards and created in and out headlamps, an innovation not to be repeated for several decades. He hinged the hood to open from the front center and disguised the radiator behind long lateral louvers. These Cords were low-slung, high-powered and front-wheel-drive. Totally new. Totally modern.

The 100 hand-built nonoperational Cords took the auto world by storm when they appeared at auto shows in late 1935. People are said to have stood disrespectfully on other cars to catch a glimpse of their dramatic design. Advance orders poured in for the $2,000 beauties.

Alas, the merciless Depression deprived too many willing buyers of the means to own a Cord, or any other distinguished auto. E.L. Cord sold the company in mid-1937 and an era abruptly ended.

The handsome showroom Cord opened in 1930 became the home of a parts and restoration center for models no longer in production and the workplace of John McQuown after his World War II service as a flight engineer and turret gunner on B-17s.

"Machines were bolted to this beautiful floor and of course it was very dirty," McQuown says of the now-gleaming geometric terrazzo marble in green, red and cream. In the early 1970s, far-sighted community leaders took over the ravaged building, sought funds, restored expansively, and in 1974 opened the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum. Its lavish showrooms and restored factory headquarters were entered onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Visitors can enter the golden age of motoring not only through the rare collection of 130 automobiles but in the restored grandeur of the building itself — elaborate hand-painted ceiling friezes with ornamental plaster in colorful relief and ornate three-tiered Italian chandeliers. The workshops of yesterday's genius also come to life — Buehrig's clay models and sketches, Cord's spectacular transportation career in autos, planes and shipping, the engineering department and experimental labs and numerous artifacts of the trade.

Like its namesake before it, the museum is a doozy.

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