Time machine

This week I attended the project unveiling for the upcoming Taube Family Carriage House and Automobile Museum, which will be constructed adjacent to the Lathrop House on the small parking lot behind the old county courthouse (now the San Mateo County History Museum) in Redwood City. This new museum was originally planned to be a single-story building devoted entirely to horse-drawn carriages, but has since evolved into a 15,000-square-foot, three-level building with a third-floor terrace and a ground floor courtyard. The county’s collection of carriages, most obtained from prominent, local families (including Mrs. Lurline Matson Roth, who deeded the Filoli estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation), will be displayed on the building’s second floor. Below, the ground floor will present rotating exhibits of carriages and classic automobiles from various private collections. As for the open and airy third floor, it will be available to rent for private gatherings, and will be used for museum events.

What appeals to me about this particular museum is not only the subject matter — I’m interested in a great many forms of transportation — but also how it will act as a time machine of sorts, allowing visitors to travel back and forth in time to explore wheeled transportation over the past 200 years or so. By including vehicles from the distant past, the present, and in-between, museum visitors will not only be able to examine individual exhibits, but will also be able to compare and contrast vehicles from different eras. Visitors will be able to see how technologies change, and how the industry progressed over the years. To me, that progression is what will make this museum especially interesting, and set it apart from many others.

I confess to an affinity for carriages and old cars. Growing up, our house in Los Angeles had an empty carport that my dad was just itching to fill. He managed to do that back in 1970, when he and my mother attended the massive MGM Studio auction. They came back having “accidentally” (so he said) purchased a black brougham carriage. Not having a horse, our carriage spent much of its time sitting quietly in our carport, where we kids got to know every inch of it. I studied that carriage’s construction, and made comparisons between elements of my parent’s cars and the carriage’s seats, opening windows, oil lamps and brakes.

Our carriage was used in a parade or two, and my brother Tom actually attended his high school prom in it: using a rented truck, Dad transported it about a block from the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where the prom was being held. My youngest brother acted as driver, while my brother David and I donned a horse costume (guess which end I was) and conveyed Tom, a friend of his, and their two dates to the hotel’s front entrance.

Dad finally sold the carriage when he came up with a better occupant for our carport: a 1929 Model A fire truck he purchased from a small firehouse in the middle of Iowa. I spent lots of time going over that truck, too, and continue to marvel at how few modern technologies are actually necessary for a motor vehicle to be perfectly functional.

One can read about carriages and old cars, and see them on TV and in movies, but there is no substitute for being able to examine them in person. The Taube Family Carriage House & Automobile Museum will let people do that, and more: it apparently will have an “Interactive Corner” where children can sit in a two-bench buggy and get a feel for driving such a vehicle. As Redwood City’s newest “time machine,” when completed this museum should serve to spark interest in transportation history and, just possibly, history in general.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.