Education

Franklin car museum city's secret

Hidden in an island of greasewood, a checkerboard of dirt roads and lovely homes on large lots near North Mountain Avenue and East Prince Road is a cultural and historical gem called the Franklin Museum. It's a secret to most Tucsonans, but each year hundreds of automobile aficionados trek to Tucson to adore 25 pristine Franklin cars, the largest collection of early 20th-century pioneering vehicles. The special museum adds to our town's special makeup. But after more than two years of seeking to expand, the museum may move. And if it goes, so goes another bit of Tucson history. Thomas H. Hubbard created the museum on five acres at North Vine Avenue and East Kleindale Street that his family purchased in the late 1930s. He began collecting and restoring Franklins in the early 1950s. By the time Hubbard died in 1993, in the 1936 adobe house on the property, he had assembled a small fleet of classic Franklins. Hubbard also acquired 23,000 mechanical drawings related to the Franklins manufactured from 1902 to 1934. The cars were engineering marvels by incorporating the newest technology of the day, said Bourke Runton, the museum director. Before he died, Hubbard formed a foundation to manage the museum. It attracts about 3,000 annual visitors from October to May, half of whom come from outside Tucson, Runton said. "People have traveled literally around the world to see us," said Runton. More than two years ago, the foundation's trustees voted to expand the museum by adding a 17,000-square-foot exhibition facility. Zoning regulations would be an obstacle, the trustees were told, but not insurmountable. They weren't. They were impossible. Zoning regulations do not permit the museum in the neighborhood. But in a contradiction that only government can create, the city's zoning in the neighborhood allows a government museum, not a nonprofit.

"I think it's one of those things that the city wrote the rules and interpreted them in the most restrictive way," said architect Bob Vint, who designed the museum's proposed addition. The foundation could have applied for rezoning, but in a neighborhood known for its zeal to fight rezoning, the trustees did not. Judy White, outgoing president of the Richland Heights West Neighborhood Association, said most of the residents approved the expansion but some did not. As a consequence, the association did not take an official stand. Instead the foundation's trustees sought out the mayor and council for help, but trustees said they couldn't find anyone to listen. However, Ward 3 Council member Kathleen Dunbar, who represents the neighborhood, said no one has talked to her recently about the problem. She called the museum a jewel that is worth preserving. She said the museum is better than possible alternatives. City zoning allows a charter school, a day-care center or an assisted-living facility. Runton and trustee Frank Hantak said the foundation would like the museum to stay at its birthplace, but it needs to expand. One possible site is upstate New York, where the Franklin cars were manufactured. Syracuse-area officials are aggressively courting the foundation. Another site is in the county next to the Pima Air and Space Museum on East Valencia Road. Rio Nuevo officials suggested that the museum move Downtown but offered minimal city assistance. The Franklin Museum may roll out of town and few will care. But when Tucson finally achieves the identical bland look of Anywhere U.S.A., don't ask why.