The Murphy Auto Museum set to permanently close its doors
OXNARD, Calif. - The Murphy Auto Museum in Oxnard just announced it's closing its doors for good.
Executive director, David Neel, told your News Channel the last day for regular hours will be July 7th. After that date, everything will be sold off. Neel announced in a press release on Monday that economic realities forced the board to make the difficult decision to close. The museum's board tried for several years to find a sustainable path to keep the museum open and part of the community.
The museum has been in Ventura County since 2005.
"I took over the running of the foundation from Dan Murphy, the museum's founder in January of 2014 because it was in danger of closing then. It is sad that Oxnard has had two fantastic car museums for many years, ourselves and the Mullin, and that the Mullin has closed and the Murphy will be closing," said Neel.
Neel is holding out hope that someone may step up and take over at the last second, saving the museum for local enthusiasts.
The museum, located at 1930 Eastman Avenue in Oxnard, sees an average of 10,000 visitors a year. It houses more than 40 antique and vintage vehicles on display, Americana, an HO scale model railroad, a large slot car raceway, vintage trailer town, diecast car collection and it hosts a monthly car show.
The museum is open every Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm.
