The open road, wind in your hair, the revs of the engine burning in your ears. The mythology of Los Angeles will always be tied to the automobile, even though brutal commutes and gridlock traffic are more in line with our everyday experience with things on four wheels.
But an everlasting romance it shall remain, and so it should not come as a surprise to know that there is a handful of museums dedicated to the automobile in Southern California.
But come July, one of them is closing shop — The Murphy Auto Museum in Oxnard.
“Our museum is an everyman museum. You come here and you see the car that you grew up with. You see things that are relatable, you can touch and feel,” said Fireball Lawrence, president of the Murphy Auto Museum.
Today, the museum holds around 45 classic and vintage automobiles — many of them owned by private collectors who want a place to store and display their whips.
“The oldest is a 1910 DuroCar. That car is made in Los Angeles,” said David Neel, executive director of the Murphy Auto Museum. “The newest one is probably our 2003 Ferrari.”
“We got Chevys, we got Fords, we got Studebakers,” Neel continued. “We have a very odd car called an Excalibur. We have a Porsche 914, an Austin Healey, a couple of Rolls Royces.”
The Murphy
The museum was founded in 2002 by Dan Murphy, a retired neurosurgeon living in Ventura, to house his growing collection of Packard cars — the defunct American luxury automaker. It also included the collections of other local enthusiasts.
The museum outgrew its Ventura location and eventually moved to its current 14,000 square feet home in Oxnard. Neel, a local businessman, in 2014 took over running the museum on a voluntary basis. After a decade, he is ready to step down.
Courtesy Murphy Auto Museum
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“Every conceivable headache of running a business is what I do [as the executive director], it’s a hobby and it’s just not sustainable,” he said.
Neel said that the operating costs of maintaining the museum has skyrocketed, particularly the costs of insuring the vehicles to be kept on premise. The nonprofit charges a small ticket price for admission and relies mainly on storage fees to stay afloat. But Neel said, it’s been difficult to keep pace.
“It’s very expensive to operate an operation like ours,” he said.
For the last couple years, Neel had tried to find someone to lead the museum, but to no avail. So when the lease to the space on Eastman Ave. ends in July, so too will the museum’s 22- year run.
The last day for visitors to see the collection is July 7, marking an end of an era not just for The Murphy, but for Oxnard at large. Until recently, the city was also home to the Mullin Automotive Museum which specializes in high-end French cars. It shut down in February after the death of founder Peter Mullin.
“It’s a shame,” said Neel. “Oxnard had two great car museums. They were both different, but they were both great.”
Courtesy Murphy Auto Museum
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How to see the collection
The Murphy Auto Museum
1930 Eastman Ave, Oxnard
Opens every Saturday and Sunday until July 7 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Last admission at 3:00 p.m.
Admission is $10.00 for guests 13 and older.
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