1931 HUDSON
Despite its best efforts, the committee tasked with finding a way to fund ongoing operations of Hostetler’s Hudson Museum in Shipshewana, Indiana, could not close the gap between expenses and revenue. On Tuesday, January 30, the Goshen News reported that the museum’s Board of Directors had voted 3-1 in favor of closing the museum and liquidating its collection of 50-plus Hudson, Essex, Terraplane, and Railton automobiles.
Valued at roughly $4.3 million, the cars were once the property of inventor-turned-Hudson-collector Eldon Hostetler, who began amassing Hudson automobiles (and related brands) as a hobby in his retirement. In 1992, he purchased eight acres of land in Shipshewana, and five years later, acquired an adjacent 10-acre plot with the thought of opening a museum dedicated to his preferred brand. Toward the end of 1997, Hostetler reached a deal with Shipshewana’s Town Manager: In exchange for his donation of the land and the vehicles , the town would construct a building to house them, giving Hostetler his museum.
The result was the Shipshewana Town Center, a 60,000 square-foot building designed to house Hostetler’s Hudson Museum, while offering additional space for meetings, weddings and conferences. The adjacent Blue Gate Garden Inn, a 154-room hotel, offered convenient accommodations for business and vacation travelers, and the construction bonds used to build the facility were paid down via a levied “innkeeper tax,” which also helped to support the museum.
Terms of the deal between Eldon and the town specified that the museum would remain open as long as he and his wife, Esta, were alive. Eldon Hostetler died in January 2016, while Esta lived until May 2017.
By this point, the Shipshewana Town Center had been sold to an investor, and the innkeeper tax – which had provided an estimated $150,000 annually to the museum – was lifted. Forced to rely on museum admissions – which amounted to roughly $23,000 per year – as its sole source of revenue, Hostetler’s Hudson Museum faced mounting debts and dwindling reserves.
Though the innkeeper tax was later reinstated, it was too little, too late. In June 2017, a committee was formed to find ways to fund the museum, led by local businesswoman Joanna King. In July, the committee was granted a 90-day extension, giving it until late October to come up with a plan. Despite the committee’s efforts, no viable long-term solution could be found, and on Tuesday, the four-member museum board voted 3-1 to close the museum and sell off the collection. The lone dissenting vote was cast by Eldon Hostetler, Jr.
In reviewing the proposed solutions, Shipshewana Town Manager Bob Shanahan stated that one plan left a projected deficit of $700,000 over five years of operation, while another produced a shortfall of $1.7 million over the same period.
The museum itself is already closed (though it can still be toured on Google Maps), its telephone disconnected and its website – perhaps ironically – linked to the city of Shipshewana’s homepage. The collection’s future is uncertain, but Eldon Hostetler, Jr., would love to see his father’s Hudsons sold to a single person, or better yet, a single museum. Failing this, or a miraculous last-minute reprieve, the collection will most likely cross the block, in whole or in part, at an upcoming auction.
photo credit: © 2018 Frank Comstock via Hemmings
edited text credit: © 2018 Kurt Ernst via Hemmings
