At a little known Rolls-Royce museum in Pennsylvania farm country,
volunteers dote over iconic cars
[April 10, 2025]
By MARK SCOLFORO
MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Mike Fowler had been faintly aware that a
museum of Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles existed near his boyhood home
in the suburbs of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but the car enthusiast
didn't expect the experience he got when he started volunteering there.
Fowler had oil on his hands within a half-hour of his first volunteer
session at the Rolls-Royce and Bentley Museum. More than a year later,
he keeps a list on his phone with notes about cars in the collection to
help him get them started properly or disconnect their batteries.
Fowler is part of a group of about 50 volunteers who gather twice a
month at the museum to help out, including cleaning, maintaining and
driving the fleet of customized iconic vehicles, many designed to be
driven by a chauffeur. For many volunteers, it’s an opportunity to
experience a life few people can afford.
“You take it out on the road and you are transported to a different
time, a different mentality,” said Fowler, a 28-year-old Camp Hill
resident.
Newcomers are first paired with a more experienced volunteer for about a
year and must pass the museum’s driving school. They start with the most
modern vehicles, which have automatic transmissions.
“We’re very protective of the collection. We’re its caretakers, and we
take it very seriously. So you can’t just come in off the street and
start driving,” said Sarah Holibaugh, the museum’s head librarian and
archivist. “But it should be that way.”
A museum that's easy to miss
The 29 antique and collectible Rolls-Royce and Bentley automobiles that
date as far back as the late 1920s are the central attraction of the
largely overlooked and seldom visited museum, which is easy to miss
among the surrounding miles of farm fields and stretch of nondescript
industrial buildings just outside Mechanicsburg. The museum, owned by
the Rolls-Royce Foundation, includes a showroom, maintenance area and a
third room being converted into a library and reading room.
“I often wonder if the homes around here know the foundation exists,”
Fowler said. “Or if they always just wonder, ‘Why do we see these
vintage Rolls-Royce and Bentleys roaming around from time to time?’"
The museum has its roots in nearby Harrisburg, where Rolls-Royce put an
owners' club in the 1960s, located between large dealerships in New York
and Washington. After Hurricane Agnes devasted that location in 1972, a
businessman donated the Mechanicsburg property for a new facility. The
6,000-person owners' club, with members in 26 countries and a
headquarters in the same complex, is a separate entity but works closely
with the museum.
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Mike Fowler drives a 1946 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith from the The
Rolls-Royce Foundation's collection in Mechanicsburg, Pa., Saturday,
April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
 Though admission is just $5, the
museum launched in 2004 gets only about 1,000 visitors a year. It
typically draws members of car clubs, groups of seniors and students
on school field trips, with visits that have to be scheduled in
advance.
Who used to own that car?
It also has rented out its cars for films and similar uses. The
museum's 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom V was in last year’s Timothée
Chalamet biopic about Bob Dylan, “A Complete Unknown,” and a 1959
Silver Cloud I from the collection appeared in Season 4 of the
series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
Volunteers also help preserve and digitize the museum's archive of
ownership and service records for North America, which span from
1907 until 2004, shortly after Rolls-Royce and Bentley were acquired
by BMW and Volkswagen, respectively. Records for cars made for the
European market are available through the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’
Club in the United Kingdom.
The North American records, which are available for a fee and
produce the foundation's biggest revenue stream, have helped prove
cars outside of their collection were once owned by famed director
Alfred Hitchcock, actor Zsa Zsa Gabor and hockey great Wayne
Gretzky.
Foundation records have also debunked claims about purported prior
ownership, including a Rolls-Royce vehicle thought to have been
owned by country singer Hank Williams Jr.
“We were able to absolutely prove that it was not owned by him,”
recalled volunteer Randy Churchill, a Boiling Springs man now
retired from a marketing career. “They just thought they had a
million-dollar gold mine on their hands.”
Vehicles in the museum’s collection range in value from about
$30,000 to about $120,000. A whiskey delivery truck appraised at
$320,000 has been donated and will soon be on display.
Many of the cars Rolls-Royce has built are still on the road and
used models can be surprisingly cheap. But maintaining an older
Rolls, with its customized features and expensive parts, can be
pricey, noted volunteer Ron Deguffroy, a retired psychologist from
Chambersburg.
“The most expensive Rolls-Royce you will buy," he said, “is a cheap
one.”
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