Original Batman car, JFK replica and more iconic history at northwest Illinois museum

When a person is driven by their passion for something, it’s easy to get on a roll. Ask Wayne Lensing. What started as a collection of cars has grown into a nearly 90,000-square-foot museum.

Cars that carried everyone from a colonel to commanders in chief. Exhibits from the frontier days to the New Frontier to the final frontier. Weapons of world wars and the Wild West. They’re all on display at Historic Auto Attractions in Roscoe, 10 miles north of Rockford.

There’s a lot to see at the museum — tens of thousands of items spread out in nearly 30 rooms — but they all have one thing in common: They all have a story to tell. While some played a humble role in history, others were part of pivotal events that helped shaped the world.

Regardless of how big or how small of a role they played, their tales are brought to life at Historic Auto Attractions, a passion project for the man behind the museum.

Among the eclectic items on display in the 86,000-foot museum include the Secret Service limo that drove behind President John F. Kennedy in Dallas the day he was assassinated, the red pickup from TV’s “Sanford and Son,” weapons owned by Jesse James and a copy of Elvis Presley’s last will and testament.

It’s an impressive collection, one that took Lensing, an automotive industry businessman, nearly 30 years and trips around the world to build. When the museum opened in 2001, the collection began with automobiles, but the more he immersed himself in history, the more history found a home at the museum. Before long, it outgrew the 30,000 square feet the museum started with, so another 50,000 square feet was added in 2022. Today, though you can make it through the museum in 2-3 hours, you could easily spend the whole day there.

As Lensing tends to his businesses and continues to travel the world to add to his collection, museum director Alex Merry leads her team in guiding visitors on a tour through the past, breathing new life into history.

“We’re not just trying to preserve history, we try to make it come alive,” Merry said. “We try to get it to talk a little bit, and get those stories from the people who were there. There’s a lot of personal touches to this museum, and as people walk through, they can sense and feel it.”

A big part of the collection are the vehicles that started it all, about 100 different ones throughout museum, from motorsports, the American presidency, World War II (both Allied and Axis), films and TV shows. There are Batmobiles, cars owned by Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, and the 1932 Studebaker John Dillinger used during an Indiana bank robbery. You can even see Colonel Sanders’ limousine.

There’s also one that was frozen in time — almost.

In 1957, a brand new Plymouth Belvedere was buried in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as part of a time capsule to be opened in 2007. The capsule wound up being damaged after a seal was broken, and the Belvedere was anything but stylish when it was unearthed in a pool of water; but its journey is interesting, and it’s one of Merry’s favorite tales to share.

“Not a lot of people will bury a car,” Merry said. “This was a brand new car with zero miles on it, and a fun fact for me that will always get me to giggle is that, in 1957, people didn’t think gasoline was going to be our fuel source [in the future], so they put some gasoline in the trunk. They had contents from a lady’s purse to show – bobby pins, makeup, change, dollar bills. You never really hear the stories of something brand new being put in the ground. I’m happy she found her home here.”

But as its website says, the museum is “so much more than cars.”

While the room of presidential and world leader limousines is the largest one in the museum, displays dedicated to President Kennedy command an impressive space, spread across three rooms. Among the displays are his funeral flag, artifacts and memorabilia from his presidency and one room dedicated to that fateful day on Nov. 22, 1963, including a piece of the legendary picket fence located near the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza, where some believe a second assassin may have fired from.

Vehicles are also part of the JFK exhibit. The 1956 Cadillac Secret Service limo that followed Kennedy through Dallas on Nov. 22 is displayed behind a replica of the 1961 Lincoln Continental X 100 limo he rode in that day. Also on display is the 1962 Checker Marathon Dallas Taxicab assassin Lee Harvey Oswald rode in to elude police and the ambulance that carried him to hospital after he was shot.

The museum’s collection is one of the largest displays on the former president in the world, Merry said. Even the story of JFK’s connection with Marilyn Monroe is told.

“The Kennedys were a great looking family from the outside to represent America, and then you dive deeper and some of the things that people like to find more information on, such as his connection with Marilyn Monroe,” Merry said. “All of the conspiracies that wrap around the Kennedys, there’s a lot of love interests, and it’s an intriguing part of American history for a lot of people of all ages.”

Another room with pieces of White House furniture highlights First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s commitment to ensuring that items in the president’s residence should be preserved so future generations could learn about them.

“Jacqueline Kennedy, in my opinion, had a huge impact for women in the United States and for the role of the first lady,” Merry said. “She preserved historical ideas, whether it was furniture, artifacts or documents that people were just tossing. I find that remarkable.”

The first room, Frontier Land, has props from western films and TV shows, and rifles and pistols used by the likes of Jesse James, Annie Oakley and “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Also included are log cabin and tee pee replicas, and a “Wild West Town” diorama that once was part of the nearby Rockford Speedway, which closed last year.

Themes of other rooms include 1950s entertainment icons, America during wartime, antique clocks, ancient Egypt, space travel, Abraham Lincoln, 9/11, Jesus Christ, Prohibition-era gangs and the animal kingdom, with taxidermy displays from the Arctic and the Serengeti in Tanzania. The Illinois Stock Car Hall of Fame also is located among the racing-related collections.

The museum also hosts five cruise nights throughout the year where car enthusiasts can show off their rides and admire others; the final one this year is Sept. 11.

Merry and Lensing, along with the museum’s chief historian Tony Farrell, are always looking for ways to promote and bring new ideas to the museum, and much of that work is done during the museum’s off-season, when it’s closed in February and March.

One of the planned additions for next year is a world records exhibit, Merry said. It’s one of several tasks on her mind, which also includes a push to increase museum attendance, both on its own right and piggybacking on new Rockford-area developments, such as the Hard Rock Cafe Casino that opened in late August.

As each piece is added to the museum, it’s a step back in the past and a step forward for the museum, as Lensing and his staff continue their mission to make their museum more than just a tourist attraction, but an experience, where people can watch history come to life.

“Whenever people come here, they talk about this being a hidden gem,” Merry said. “We’re tucked away in Roscoe, a small town around the state line. ‘How did it end up here?’ is a question we always get. There are gems here, and people are starting to slowly sniff them out. It’s starting to become a bigger thing now.”