LeMay Collections at Marymount — Attraction in Spanaway

by Nancy Dewitt, Fountainhead Museum Historian I recently traveled to Seattle, Washington, for a vacation and decided to spend a day visiting the two LeMay museums in Tacoma. I started off at the LeMay Family Collection at Marymount, which is less well known than the newer and flashier LeMay – America’s Car Museum next to the Tacoma Dome.

The original buildings were all part of the Marymount Military Academy run by the Sisters of St. Dominica from 1923-1975. Eric LeMay, one of Harold’s grandsons, gave me a behind-the-scenes tour of the former housing complex, chapel, visiting priest’s quarters, and miscellaneous collections that aren't open to the public (though the chapel and some rooms are rented out for events). The cars are displayed and stored in the old gymnasium, auditorium, swimming pool, indoor rifle range, shower room, and several newer storage buildings. Expect a surprise each time you round a corner into another room.

I had been told I would see warehouses filled with cars, many fork lifted onto shelves, and parked so tightly that it was hard to fully appreciate them. The cars were indeed packed into the warehouses, but it was still fun to cruise the rows of trucks and automobiles looking for favorites. It's amazing how many marques and styles you will find. There is more elbow room in the main Red Building, and the gymnasium is quite spacious. I had to chuckle at the cars parked up in the bleachers!

You won't learn a lot about automobile history at this museum by reading signs, but they have excellent docents to fill in the blanks. And you will be blown away with the sheer number and variety of cars and how their styles changed over time. There are some very nice and rare vintage vehicles in the collection--Harold LeMay had a good eye and his vehicles here are very well preserved. I especially loved seeing trucks that I had never heard of before, and how could I not love the stiletto art car? Sweet Tucker, too. There's something for everyone here, including some interesting memorabilia and even a few vintage fashions.

Bottom Line - do go if you...

We felt like we were scammed. Purchased tickets from Groupon for 6 of us and made the trek down to Tacoma. However, It turns out there are two Lemay car museums and we accidentally purchased tickets for the one in Spanaway. According to the girl at the counter in Tacoma "it's great they have 500 cars on display."

So, based off of what she said we decided to drive down instead of just purchasing new tickets in Tacoma.

Somehow between Tacoma and Spanaway which is a 20ish minute drive 500 cars turned into about 50. There is a room with VW's, maybe 15-20. There's a room with some trucks again 15-20 and then a large room with 3-4 vehicles in it. We were told there was a private event taking place and some cars were loaned out, so we were limited to only two or three rooms and there seem to be absolutely nothing of interest there. We were also told there was a green barn that cost extra when we asked what was in it the girl behind the counter said "just more cars" so we did not pay extra to visit that barn which now sounds like a mistake.

There wasn't a single vehicle anybody in our group was interested in.

Total bust and waste of a 4hr round-trip drive.

We didnt have time to drive back to Tacoma to purchase tickets for the museum there as they stop selling tickets at 3:30 and it was almost 4.

I'm not sure how this place gets so many good reviews as our experience was pretty poor including the staff. If either of the two people in Tacoma we talked would have been honest with us we would have gladly purchased new tickets to tour the museum in Tacoma. We came down for a birthday and it was an absolute...

Like an indoor year round Greenwood Auto Show, a must see (once) and a truly head spinning collection of cars of all vintages. You will want to bring houseguests here ... trust that instinct! Wear outerwear. It's insanely cold here in the winter.

You will wander rows and rows of oldies, however probably half of them are up on racks above the floor where it's impossible to see more than their grilles. No touching anything ever, so a difficult place to bring curious kids. Or curious adults for that matter.

Unlike the Greenwood Auto Show, it's a must see that doesn't really call you back and back (except that houseguests keep coming!). It's kind of a lonely place with not a lot of personality unless you count the cars ... and I know some of us do. But really, in terms of excitement and engagement it literally feels like walking through a crusty old dude's oversized unheated garage (which you basically are).

Not to be snarky but I don't know what they do with admission as it's not much of a museum ... very little explication, no interactive exhibits, no docents, too few by far activities for the community to participate in. IMHO they could do a lot more to honor this millionaire's passion for cars if they'd see their way to evolve the biz from guarding his horde to taking responsibility for deepening and communicating the very unifying American experience of...