Maine Stories

Maine is the unlikely home of hundreds of antique and classic automobiles in public and private collections. Unlike southern locations, the state’s prized wheels stay under cover for most of the year.

One Saturday each July, the town green in tiny Paris Hill becomes a kaleidoscope of colorful metal bodies with chrome finishing and white wall tires. The event is Founders Day, and the main attraction is the private car collection of resident and former NASCAR speedway owner Robert Bahre. This year’s exhibit and other activities happen Saturday, July 18. Bahre’s collection of more than 60 vehicles includes a 1921 Mercedes used in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a vintage Indy race car, a lemon yellow 1914 Stutz Bearcat, and a cherry red 1945 Cadillac convertible. There are trucks and antique wagons, Packards and Duesenbergs.

Besides the beautiful and memory-making autos, there will be live music, and a craft fair with handmade wood products, jewelry, lapidary crafts, and locally mined gems and minerals. Homemade pies and pastries, jams, jellies, pickles, maple syrup and other treats will be for sale.

Proceeds from the event will go to the Paris Hill Hamlin Memorial Library & Museum which will be open for tours. The library and museum are housed in the 1822 town jail which was purchased in the late 1800s by Augustus C. Hamlin, nephew of Abraham Lincoln’s first Vice President Hannibal Hamlin.

For more information about the Paris Hill Founders Day call (207) 743-2980 or visit www.hamlin.lib.me.us

Maine Auto Museums

See more antique, classic and prototype cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles at these public museums:

• Boothbay Railway Village in Boothbay
• Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor
• Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head
• Seal Cove Auto Museum in Tremont
• Wells Auto Museum in Wells. (207) 646-9064