Recalling Walter P. Chrysler Museum’s Cars, Trees & Traditions

It’s the holiday season—a time for gathering with friends, family, and loved ones to enjoy each other’s company and reflect with gratitude. For Mopar fanatics like myself, this time of year also meant the annual Cars, Trees, and Traditions exhibit at the former Walter P. Chrysler Museum on the Chrysler Technical Center (CTC) campus in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

“Cars, Trees & Traditions” highlighted eight decades of holiday celebrations, featuring 23 decorated Christmas trees paired with Chrysler vehicles displayed throughout the museum. Evergreens on the museum’s two upper floors showcased authentic ornamentation spanning from the early 1900s through the 1980s. Meanwhile, the trees located in Boss Chrysler’s Garage—the museum’s lower level—were decorated around specific themes.

The museum’s volunteers did an outstanding job organizing the exhibit, thoughtfully placing each decade-themed tree alongside a vehicle representing Chrysler’s extended heritage lineup. “Cars, Trees & Traditions” brought the styles, traditions, and products of holidays past to life through period-correct advertisements, graphics, and imagery displayed with each tree. The exhibit also featured a collection of historic Detroit photographs from Wayne State University’s Walter P. Reuther Library.

By following the exhibition’s narrative from one vignette to the next, guests could see how the evolution of the automobile—from early horseless carriages to enclosed, more comfortable, and better-engineered vehicles—helped shape the way Americans celebrated the season’s festivities.

Later in the exhibition’s run, an array of Lionel O and O27 gauge model trains from multiple decades was added to Boss Chrysler’s Garage. Many of the layouts highlighted Chrysler brands such as Dodge, Mopar®, DeSoto, and Plymouth, while others celebrated iconic Detroit institutions, including Vernors and Stroh’s.

Although the Walter P. Chrysler Museum has since closed and been repurposed as a workspace for the North American operations of Alfa Romeo and Maserati, it sits empty today. There remains hope that Stellantis could one day revive a similar public-facing experience at the Conner Center—the former Conner Avenue Assembly Plant, best known as the Viper plant.

The former manufacturing facility, located in a Detroit neighborhood just south of the famed 8 Mile Road, can display up to 85 of the nearly 400 concept and historic vehicles currently stored onsite under one roof. Previously, the company’s extensive collection had been spread across multiple locations.

Approximately 77,000 of the plant’s nearly 400,000 square feet is dedicated to vehicle displays, showcasing everything from the 1902 Rambler—the oldest vehicle in the collection—to one of its most historically significant models, the 1924 Chrysler Six Prototype. Meanwhile, Conner’s former administrative offices are slated to be converted into nearly 22,000 square feet of meeting space, capable of accommodating gatherings of various sizes.

Be sure to watch the video from Discover the D at the top of the page for a closer look at this truly remarkable exhibit from the past.