Blackhawk Museum
Encyclopedia
Blackhawk, California
Blackhawk is an unincorporated master planned community and census-designated place located in Contra Costa County, California, east of Danville and Oakland. The ZIP Code is 94506. The community is inside area code 925.-Blackhawk Ranch, 1917 to 1979:...
, best known for its significant collection of classic cars.
The museum houses about ninety classic cars. It also houses a display showcasing the work of the Wheelchair Foundation
Wheelchair Foundation
The Wheelchair Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in June 2000 by real estate developer Ken Behring, and based in Danville, California. The foundation partners with donors to provide wheelchairs to people who need them but can not afford them, mostly in developing nations...
. The facility is located within the Blackhawk Plaza outdoors shopping mall. The museum is an affiliate through the Smithsonian Affiliations program.
The museum was founded by local real estate developer Ken Behring
Ken Behring
Kenneth Eugene Behring is a real-estate developer, former owner of the Seattle Seahawks football team, and philanthropist.-Early years:...
; it was originally known as the Behring Auto Museum, and later, the Blackhawk Automotive Museum.
One of the museum's most unusual features is a 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C
Hispano-Suiza H6
The Hispano-Suiza H6 was a luxury automobile from the 1920s. Introduced at the 1919 Paris Motor Show, the H6 was produced until 1933. Roughly 2,350 H6, H6B, and H6C cars were produced in total....
made entirely of tulipwood
Tulipwood
Most commonly, tulipwood is the pinkish yellowish wood yielded from the tuliptree, found on the Eastern side of North America and also in some parts of China. In the United States, it is commonly known as tulip poplar or yellow poplar, even though the tree is not related to the poplars. In fact,...
. It also houses a 1962 John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
limousine and a Chinese Hongqi
FAW Hongqi
Hongqi is a luxury car brand of First Automobile Works. These cars were the first domestically produced Chinese passenger vehicles.First manufactured in 1958, the original Hongqi models were only for high-ranking party elite and remained in production until 1981...
.