William E. Swigart, Jr. Automobile Museum

Nearly a century of automotive history is in store for those who come to Huntingdon. The Swigart Museum is the oldest automobile museum in America having been established in 1920 by the late W. Emmert Swigart. It started as one man's effort to preserve a vanishing portion of Americana. At the time Mr. Swigart began collecting automobiles, the automotive industry was just 25 years old and many car manufacturers were already out of business. In most cases the aged automobile became scrap iron or was dismembered to provide the needed part for some other apparatus. Fortunately W. Emmert Swigart realized the automobile industry was evolving quickly and the past was being lost. His fondness for pre-1914 automobiles is evident in the collection.

Upon the death of Emmert Swigart on December 17, 1949, his son, William E. Swigart, Jr., as the only member of the family with a true love and interest in the collections, took over where his father left off and has developed them to almost 200 vehicles.

Mr. Swigart relished the thought of preserving intact the collection that his father started.