photo by Kevin Savick

One of the autos featured on a postcard issued by Kelsey’s Antique Car Museum when it was located in Albert Lea from 1949 to about 1954 was this 1909 Velie. This automobile was a four-cylinder, 40 horsepower model that sold for $2,500. The building in the background was then the local Kelsey museum southeast of Albert Lea and is now the location of Ad-Art Inc.

Moving a museum from Minnesota to Missouri

Looking Back

By Ed Shannon | Albert Lea Tribune

Published Saturday, June 27, 2009

Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts.

For over two decades, Paul Kelsey and his family lived in Albert Lea. He came to the city in 1930 from Royal, Iowa, and started to sell popcorn from a mobile stand at the corner of Broadway Avenue and Main Street. However, he had a hobby which had started before moving to Minnesota. His interest was in older automobiles and he started to purchase and restore these vehicles which could already be classified as antiques.

In 1949, Kelsey decided to exhibit his growing collection of antique vehicles in a permanent building and start a museum. Thus, Kelsey’s Antique Car Museum was established in a new structure on U.S. Highway 65 southeast of Albert Lea. This particular building is now occupied by Ad-Art Inc., and is to the south of Hillcrest Cemetery and Exit 8 on Interstate 35.

Kelsey decided in 1953 to move his family, the museum operations and 35 antique vehicles to Camdenton, Mo. By the following year the move to Missouri was completed and a new museum was set to the east of Camdenton on U. S. Highway 54.

John Kelsey, the son of Paul and May Kelsey, said several of these antique automobiles were actually driven from Albert Lea to Camdenton and the rest were transported by auto carriers. John, incidentally, was born in Rochester and attended St. Theodore’s Catholic School before the move to Missouri.

Camdenton is located just south of the Lake of the Ozarks and the city of Osage Beach and had a 2000 population of 3,061. This community is 60 miles north of Branson , Mo., and between Jefferson City and Springfield. This area is considered to be one of the prime resort regions of the Midwest.

In time, the Kelsey collection grew to 85 older vehicles, with 52 being put on display at the Missouri museum. Most of these antiques were reportedly restored to working condition. Paul continued to travel around the Midwest looking for older vehicles to add to his collection..

The oldest vehicle for both the Albert Lea and Camdenton museums was an 1899 Mobile Steamer. This eight-horsepower carriage-like, vehicle was made from 1899 to 1903 by the Automobile Company of America in Tarrytown, N.Y. This firm also made two other brands of early autos, the Locomobile and the famous Stanley Steamers.

For nearly 40 years Kelsey’s Antique Auto Museum, a slight change in name from the Albert Lea location, was a major tourist attraction for people going to Branson or vacation or winter residence locations further south. The museum was listed in the AAA and Mobil Travel guides of that era, which added that this Camdenton site also had a display of music boxes and mechanical instruments.

John said his mother, May, died in 1994, and that’s the year the museum closed. His father, Paul, died in 1998. He said the antique vehicles are still there.

Not far away from the museum is the Kelsey Tire Company, owned by John, which he says has been in business for 40 years and is still the exclusive Goodyear source for vintage auto tires.

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