Model A club to visit Presidential Library

The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum today announced that a group from the national Model A Restorers Club will be visiting the Presidential Library on Monday, Sept. 21, from 9 to 10:45 a.m.

The members of the club, who will park their 15 Model A cars in the Presidential Library parking lot during the visit, are particularly interested in seeing President Wilson’s 1919 Pierce-Arrow limousine. Mr. Richard D. “Dick” Robertson, Chair of the Presidential Library’s Pierce-Arrow Committee, will be on hand to discuss the Presidential limousine with the Model A members.

The day in Staunton is part of a four-day tour of Virginia that will include 250 members of the national organization. Each day, members have an option of different cities in Virginia to visit.

Mr. Wayne Leary of Lyndhurst and Mr. Bob Kuykendall of Waynesboro, members of the Skyline Chapter of the club, are the hosts of the Staunton tour and will lead the 15 Model A cars to Staunton from Charlottesville on Monday morning.

For more information about the Model A Restorers Club, which is based in Dearborn, Michigan, see the following: http://bit.ly/b9CPX.

For more information about the club’s National Tour to Virginia next week, see the following: http://bit.ly/10yJnV.

When President Wilson returned from France after negotiating the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the new Pierce-Arrow Vestibule Sedan awaited him at the dock in New York to take him back to Washington. It became his favorite car, and drives around Washington in the Pierce-Arrow became among the President’s favorite ways to get away from the bustle of the White House. He favored this automobile so much that, when he left office, his friends purchased it for $3,000 from the Pierce-Arrow Manufacturing Company for his use and added the Princeton orange striping in honor of his alma mater. A gift to the organization from the President’s widow, the limousine has been restored to full working order and is featured at antique car shows around the country. It has a 48-horse power engine with six cylinders, cast in pairs. It can be seen year-round at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum.