Car, Animal Exhibit to Aid Maritime Museum

Oxnard’s only private collection of vintage cars will open its doors to the public next month to benefit an exhibit that pays homage to sailing ships.

The Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife collection of Otis Chandler, chairman of the executive committee of the board of directors of Times Mirror Co., will have its first public viewing March 18 at a fund-raiser for the Ventura County Maritime Museum.

Chandler, a collector since 1968, said his vintage cars languished in storerooms before they came under the same roof in Oxnard. The 90 antique and race cars included in Chandler’s exhibit form the largest collection in the county.

“We never had the time or space to put the whole museum together,” Chandler said Tuesday. The museum will be opened on a limited basis to private groups, he said.

Located in a two-story industrial complex, the Vintage Museum is an impressive collection of automobiles and railroad cars, including a rare 1931 Duesenberg Tourster and a Santa Fe Railroad caboose. The museum walls sport wild game trophies from Chandler’s hunting expeditions in Africa.

Officials hope that the collection will help raise $50,000 for the Ventura County Maritime Museum, a building still under construction at Fisherman’s Village in Channel Islands Harbor.

Now headquartered on Pacific Avenue, the museum has a warehouse full of scale models of historic sailing vessels, including models and miniature replicas of galleons, men-of-war and clipper ships, some dating back to the 1700s.

When it opens in July, the museum will have the only collection of seafaring artifacts in Ventura County, said Frank Crane, executive director.