Christian proposes car museum in downtown Atlanta

By Stephen Jones
sjones@casscountynow.com

At the last Atlanta City Council meeting, an interesting idea was presented to the council by Jim Christian. 
He proposed the possibility of bringing a car museum to the city of Atlanta. 
As the director of the Four States Auto Museum in Texarkana, Christian is optimistic about the potential museum’s affect on the town. “I believe the museum could bring in tourists from all around and help local businesses,” Christian said, “People are just drawn to them [museums].”
The plan is to have the museum located in the building next to Luigi’s Italian Restaurant on N East Street. Christian cites the building’s large parking lot and glass windows as important factors in picking that particular location, but the main reason is its proximity to downtown’s other businesses.
“The last time there was a car show in Atlanta,” said Christian, “Luigi’s told us it was the most business they had all year.”
As of now, the project is still in its early stages, so Christian is trying gauge public opinion on whether or not they would interested in having a car museum similar to the one in Texarkana; and if all goes well, he has a plan to generate revenue.
“The museum would be a transparent, non-profit 501c3,” Christian said, “and we would have a monthly museum membership program.”
When it comes to what would be in the museum, he is very confident about the cars that he could get to display. “I know plenty of people who would be willing to donate cars to the museum,” said Christian, “It would be the same way we get cars to show in the Texarkana museum.”