Transport visitors through the fascinating story of roadway travel.
Featuring over 140 items related to transportation, including 50 motorized vehicles, your journey begins with simple wagons and coaches before accelerating to the elaborate and luxurious automobiles of the 1940s.
Meticulously restored to their original splendor, these “antiques on wheels” are all in running condition and beautifully displayed among period artifacts and costumes.
The museum was built on one man’s fascination with antique transportation. Fired with his passion for history, H.T.N. Graves, former president of Luray Caverns Corporation, set out with his staff to locate and purchase a collection deemed important to the history of travel. This began in the early 1950’s with the interest of sharing a new attraction with the hundreds of thousands of yearly visitors to Luray Caverns. These vehicles in post-World War II America were not considered by most to be of cultural or historic importance at the time. They were, however, recognized by Graves and staff to be objects of certain aesthetic beauty and significance that warranted preservation. This vision chartered a new appreciation and understanding of man’s transportation experience over a 200-year period. In an American perspective, transportation has been a great agent in the country’s interpretation of freedom and the notion of the “wide open road.”
Since its inaugural year of 1957, the museum has educated and entertained millions of Shenandoah Valley visitors and remains one of America’s most outstanding exhibits of rare vintage vehicles. Come and see the elegant and extremely rare 1932 Rolls Royce Shooting Brake, a recent and especially intriguing addition to the collection. Or a 1928 Mercedes Benz which perfectly captures the spirit of a by-gone era. We are also home to the oldest auto in operating condition on display in America, the 1898 Benz Vis-à-vis as well as the interesting 1899 Peugeot are just a few of the centerpieces of this outstanding collection. Have fun letting your imagination soar when you learn some “old tricks” engineered into these exquisite vehicles.
A self-guided tour of the Car & Carriage Caravan Museum is included in the Luray Caverns General Admission.
