The iconic era of the 1950s will come alive this summer, when the Newport Car Museum opens, complete with exhibit areas featuring classic “fin cars” and midcentury modern furnishings.
The museum, event space and private storage facility is the work of Gunther and Maggie Buerman, who live in Florida but have a vacation home in Newport. Gunther Buerman, the chairman of American Rock Salt Co., has collected cars and furniture for many years.
The museum will house 50 of his favorites in his personal collection, including a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, in aqua blue, one of the defining fin cars of the 1950s.
Other vehicles to be displayed when the museum opens in June will include 1970s muscle cars, modern Vipers, European luxury cars and “the ultimate fin car,” the 1959 Cadillac.
In the ’50s, the colors of cars became more vibrant, with candy-colored tones, and fins and rocket stylings emerged, all reflecting Americans’ love of space travel and optimism about the future.
“It was an amazing time,” Buerman said.
The museum, a nonprofit, will be located at 1847 West Main Road in Portsmouth, in a 114,000-square-foot building on the Raytheon Co. campus. The building was a former missile-manufacturing plant. Renovations will be completed by June 1.