UPDATE: The Former Southampton LI Automotive Museum Property
It looks like the new owners of the former L.I. Automotive Museum property in Southampton have completed their new building, and it's a glorious homage to Henry Austin Clark and his fabled museum!
Greg O.
August 27th, 1948
The smiling faces of everyone attending the museum on opening day, August 27th, 1948
1952
Henry Austin Clark out front from one of the postcards in their postcard collection in 1952
May 2019
After the museum closed its doors permanently in 1980, the quonset hut buildings sat for another 37 years untouched.
The 8.3 acre property was originally listed for $6.3 million 2017 and was sold to an unknown buyer. Details of the sale are unknown.
The heavily wooded property was beginning to get cleared, and by May of 2019, the dilapidated, hidden buildings could be seen again from Route 27.
September 2022
In the last September 2022 update, it appeared the new building under construction on the site was possibly paying an homage to the old museum.
July 2023
On July 4th, 2023, while scrolling through Facebook, I came across a page called 'East Enders of Long Island/A Love Story'. There, Admin 'Arthur AndersEn' frequently posts his wonderful drone photos and videos of the East End of the island.
This post showed an incredible shot of the completed building on the old LI Automotive Museum grounds.
It is unclear who the new business is operating on the property, but they certainly did go out of their way in time and expense to wonderfully and faithfully recreate the facade of Clark's long-known landmark quonset huts right down to original entrance and building color!
Kudos to the unknown owner/business for respecting the history of Southampton, The LI Automotive Museum and Henry Austin Clark!
And a big 'Thank you' to Admin Arthur AndersEn and his Facebook group for allowing us to share his incredible photo! -Greg O.
UPDATE: August 26th 2023
On Saturday August 26th, Tucker #1044 participated in the Southampton Fresh Air Concours d'Elegance which was located less than a mile from the former LIAM property. I took the opportunity to get some new ground-level shots of the new building built by Skip Norsic.
Norsic is the owner of Emil Norsic & Son Inc. sanitation located just north of the old LIAM property and has been in talks to purchase the adjacent LIAM property for over 20 years, with the purchase finally going through in 2017.
In August of 2022, Emil Norsic & Son was sold to Winters Brothers, but the recreated Long Island Automobile Museum facade still stands with the assumption it was possibly retained by Norsic.
Comments
Building looks great, has like a retro look to it. Have to figure out what the business will be here.
https://www.27east.com/southampton-press/norsic-is-buyer-of-former-long-island-auto-museum-plans-to-use-5-million-property-for-storage-1597692/
I spoke to the owner, skip Norsic. He actually wanted to save the original building but said it was just too far gone. So he did the front to pay homage to the museum.
How cool is that !
Amazing reproduction of Henry Austin Clark’s’ auto museum in Southhampton! Great job by everyone involved erecting this amazing structure replicating the original museum!!
Great job just needs Flagpole