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Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles.

What a wonderful place!!!

Thank you to my friend Jerry Keefer, Kendra Cook the Curator / Manager, and all the other friendly, knowledgeable people who make this such an enjoyable experience.

Here are some historical highlights from their web site:

Discover Pennsylvania’s Transportation History at the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles! See vehicles of all types: gasoline, electric, and horse-drawn, including carriages, wagons, and sleighs. You will see ‘high wheelers” and “safety bicycles,” vehicle builder’s tools, and local historic roadside architecture.

The museum is housed in the former home of the Boyertown Auto Body Works, which had continuous operations on this site from 1872 – 1990, and retains the factory setting, making it a unique and interesting setting for the vehicles.

Mission Statement

To operate as a museum of road transportation, vehicles, artifacts, roadside culture, alternative propulsion, and vehicle builders focused on Pennsylvania and the Greater Delaware Valley; as well as the historic vehicles built by Jeremiah Sweinhart’s Carriage Factory 1872-1914 and by Paul Hafer’s Boyertown Auto Body Works 1914-1990 in the historic Industrial Age factory buildings which now house the collection.

The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles was established in 1965 by Paul and Erminie Hafer.  Paul Hafer had a 57-year career of designing and building truck bodies at the Boyertown Auto Body Works, which was co-founded by his father B. Frank Hafer.  He served for 21 years as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles. 

Erminie Hafer’s book, A Century of Vehicle Craftsmanship, is a thorough history on the transportation industry in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

In addition to dozens of road vehicles, the Boyertown Museum also counts related literature and memorabilia amongst its collections. Also popular are two examples of roadside architecture: our 1938 Fegely’s Reading Diner and a 1921 Sunoco gas station.

Visiting the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles is a truly unique experience because the Museum buildings themselves are historic. The main gallery of the Boyertown Museum is in the former main factory building of the Boyertown Auto Body Works. From 1926 until 1990, the Boyertown Auto Body Works manufactured truck bodies for commercial and government use. Some of those trucks are now on display in the Boyertown Museum – in the very building in which they were designed and constructed.

In addition, the original 1872 Jeremiah Sweinhart Carriage Factory, where vehicle building began in Boyertown, still stands and is part of the Museum complex. 

The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles proudly presents a dynamic exhibit of the reconstructed blacksmith forge and early belt-driven machine shop of the Jeremiah Sweinhart Carriage Factory, along with a display of buggies and wagons built right here in the Carriage Works.

I have not had time to work on the hundreds of images I took when visiting, but here are a few crummy i-phone pics so you have an idea of how exceptional this place really is!

More information:

http://boyertownmuseum.org/