STUART, Fla. — Exhibits at the Elliott Museum in Stuart include temporary art from the Highwaymen or a permanent collection of baseball cards. But the museum is best known for its classic cars, including its Boomerang system.
The Boomerang is a three-story automated parking garage that acts as a classic car vending machine.
"It's one of only four machines that were made by the Boomerang company. And this is the only one that's currently operable," said Elliott Museum car curator Jim Ferrare.
Why such an extravagant system?
"The Donnelly family donated approximately 55 1930 and 31 Ford Model A cars and trucks and we had a limited footprint to store the cars so the only way we could accept all the cars was to build up," Ferrare said.
The cars are prepped and stored so they can be viewed by a push of a button.
"All the cars in our Boomerang's parking garage, have the batteries removed, fluids are removed, and they're set up for viewing on a turntable machine or pick up a car from the authorized parking spot and roll it down and put it on the turntable and the turntables will spend anywhere from two to five times to allow people to get 360 degree view of the car," said Ferrare.
Highwaymen: From Streetcorner to the Smithsonian
Now through July 12 you see the Highwaymen exhibit at the Elliott Museum in Stuart. The Highwaymen were a group of Black artists that sold their artistic landscape treasures along the roads of the Treasure Coast.
