The Museum Building

Our bilingual audio tour explores less well-known stories from the collection, in the voices of the Museum’s volunteers, historians, vehicle experts and more. Transcript:The Canadian Automotive Museum’s building, located at 99 Simcoe Street South in downtown Oshawa was originally built as a car showroom and service centre. During the 1920s it was home to Ontario Motor Sales, selling Chevrolets and Oakland automobiles. Customers were truly “buying local;” the cars were built just a few blocks away by General Motors of Canada. Back then the building looked very different; the large windows along the outer walls would have flooded the space with light and fresh air. New cars were displayed in a front showroom and the back was filled with mechanics and spare parts. Look up and you’ll notice some of the showroom’s original tin ceiling tiles are visible. The building’s original freight elevator is still in use, continuing to transport cars between floors, just as it did 100 years ago.  During the 1930s Ontario Motor Sales moved to a new location. The building served briefly as the city’s unemployment relief offices during the Great Depression, and became home to the Anglo-Canadian Drug Company, which added the north room, with its 23” thick cement floors, believed to have been designed to hold heavy manufacturing equipment. The museum’s interior has changed several times over the years, from 1960s wood paneling to today’s neutral tones meant to highlight the colours of the automobiles on display.