New England Motorcycle Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 2018 |
|---|---|
| Location | 200 West Main Street, Rockville, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Type | Motorcycle |
| Visitors | 10,000 (2019) |
| Owner | Ken Kaplan |
The New England Motorcycle Museum is an exciting place in Rockville, Connecticut. It's a special museum where you can see many different kinds of motorcycles. It celebrates the history and fun of motorcycles.
Discovering the Museum's History
The museum is inside a very old building called the Hockanum Mill. This mill was built over 200 years ago! It used to be a textile mill, where fabrics were made. But it was left empty for a long time, starting in 1951.
In 2013, a person named Ken Kaplan bought the big property. He is the founder of the museum. Ken wanted to bring the old building back to life. He planned to use it for his computer business and a motorcycle shop. He also dreamed of opening a motorcycle museum there.
Restoring the building was a huge job. It took almost seven years to fix everything. Workers had to repair the outside and inside of the building. They also had to clean up a lot of old, unsafe materials from the property.
It cost a lot of money to open the museum. Over $6.5 million was spent to make it ready. Some of this money came from state loans and donations. The museum officially opened its doors on August 25, 2018.
What You Can See: The Collection
The New England Motorcycle Museum has an amazing collection. There are almost 200 vintage motorcycles to see! These bikes come from many different years, from 1920 all the way to 2021.
This makes it the largest collection of old motorcycles in the Northeast United States. It's also one of the biggest motorcycle museums in the whole country. Besides the motorcycles, you can also find cool motorcycle memorabilia. There's even a special library just about motorcycles.
