Articles 
Collector and Curator, John Dudley
Car museum celebrates American ingenuity
By Brain Cohen
Staff Writer
The Observer
Surprisingly, for a guy who loves cars, John Dudley is not one to toot his own horn.
Dudley clearly has a passion for automobiles, especially ones with unusual body styles or crafted by long-extinct manufacturers. Thirty-two vehicles, made between 1904 and 1948, enlighten museum-goers with clever philosophies of industrial design.
There's the world's first mini-van (from 1945), a 1925 car with a wooden frame for a smooth ride. Then there's the first car with an automatic windshield wiper and a couple of classy rides with temperature gauges in their hoods to determine if the engine was too hot.
But the Roaring Twenties Antique Car Museum, established in 1967, is also about mechanical innovation by and for people "who had to make do with what they had," Dudley said.
Examples include gasoline-powered Maytag washing machines that doubled as large food processors, a Model-T converted to a tractor, cars that ran on both kerosene and gas. Also there are portable still that kept the revenuers guessing, a wagon that unloaded heavy items through the floor, another that used a drag brake on steep hills and tire pumps with several pressure rates.
Dudley said he did not want superlatives used to describe his museum.
He calls it "a historical collection of American industrial art."
He's just a regular Joe who likes to collect cars - 800 throughout his life. So this reporter and gadget-hound promised not to use words like "great," "amazing," "fantastic" or "really cool" in his article.
The museum also houses an extensive collection of glassware and china which Dudley and his wife, Clarissa, inherited, along with clocks, household items and examples of lifestyles never to be seen again.
About 50 beautiful - sorry, John - pretty nice calling cards dating back about a century are under glass.
"You would present your card to the maid, who would answer the door, and then she would take it to the lady of the house to let her know a gentleman had come calling," Dudley said.
Also on display is a receipt for the last slave sold in Madison County.
The museum is located on VA 230 West, about five miles outside of Stanardsville.
Dudley said he sometimes goes to car shows, so people should call ahead.
September 20, 2000
