Plans for ‘American Graffiti’ museum in Modesto are moving fast. It’s what hot rods do
Modesto could have a museum showcasing its “America Graffiti” heritage by June, under a plan backed by several prominent residents.
They propose the museum in the former Warden’s Office Furniture Outlet at North Ninth Street and Coldwell Avenue. An estimated 20,000 visitors a year would view mementos of the cruising and racing that inspired the 1973 movie by Modesto native George Lucas.
Leaders in the effort visited The Modesto Bee on Friday to talk about the idea, which has been around for a quarter-century. They are looking for donations toward the roughly $3.2 million cost. They hope to open the first phase in time for the annual Graffiti Summer events this June.
The 40,000-square-foot complex would include classic car displays, education about hot-rod engines and related topics, and an event center that could hold up to 700 people. Visitors could dine in a drive-in restaurant on the site and see films in a small replica of a drive-in theater.
“The whole goal is when you walk in that front door, you are transported back to a night in 1962,” said museum board member Chris Murphy. He is the co-owner of Sierra Pacific Warehouse Group and a longtime Graffiti fan.
The museum would not be a major employer, relying instead on volunteers for daily staffing. The planners include residents donating their expertise in finance, real estate, engineering and other fields.
“We have a good variety of the people it takes to bring this together, but we don’t have a lot of deep pockets,” said John Sanders, chairman of the museum board. He is a retired businessman who has chaired the American Graffiti Festival & Car Show for 20 years.
1920’s buildings
The place would be called the Graffiti USA Classic Car Museum and operate as a nonprofit. Its volunteer executive director to start is Cecil Russell, a former president and CEO of the Modesto Chamber of Commerce and a retired Save Mart executive. The museum might someday have a salaried director.
The site is a connected pair of buildings erected in the 1920s as a seed warehouse for the Lyng family, which still owns it. Warden’s had an outlet in leased space there, along with its main store on J Street, before consolidating into new quarters in north Modesto last year.
The museum planners said they are working with the Lyngs to buy the property. The concrete buildings are single stories with 20-foot ceilings. They need new heating, air conditioning, fire sprinklers and wheelchair-accessible restrooms before anything opens to the public.
Three phases
The first phase would include space for car displays, which would change from time to time. This phase also has the event center, a gift shop and the drive-in restaurant. The eatery would mimic Burge’s Drive-In, which stood at Ninth and O streets until 1967.
The second phase would feature replicas of storefronts from the early 1960s, when downtown was still Modesto’s retail core. Another area would have an exhibit on local radio history, notably stations KTRB and KFIV. The museum also would get a version of the Legends of the Cruise Walk of Fame, already at Tenth Street Place.
The third phase would bring an operating car-restoration garage, modeled on the old Tully Road shop of legendary designer Gene Winfield. This phase also would have the drive-in theater, showing “American Graffiti” and other films related to the museum theme.
The second and third phases have no timeline yet.
Unique history
The planners hope to share this part of Modesto history with young people in the area. And they think tourists driving to and from Yosemite National Park might drop by. Many of them likely know Lucas better as the creator of “Star Wars.”
The museum would cover its operating costs with entry fees, memberships, donations and income from the event space and gift shop. The event space could be rented for weddings, meetings, fundraisers and other uses.
The drive-in restaurant could provide culinary training in partnership with local schools. And the auto shop might be a classroom for mechanics in training at nearby Modesto Junior College.
The museum would be nearly a mile northwest of downtown. Ninth Street was Highway 99 before Modesto got a freeway in the mid-1960s. Coldwell Avenue was a turnaround spot for young people cruising Tenth and other streets in the city core.
“Our Graffiti history is really important to what Modesto becomes in the future,” Murphy said.
This story was originally published January 4, 2020 at 3:28 PM.
