You are here: Home / Articles / Travel / Auto Museums / Unique Auto Museum Resides in a Nursery

Unique Auto Museum Resides in a Nursery

When you go to a nursery you expect to see flowers, trees and shrubs, not old cars and trucks. However, Simpson's Garden Town Nursery in Jamul, California has an abundance of both nursery stock and old cars, trucks and camping trailers.

In 1928, Hal Simpson opened Simpson’s House of Service in Pasadena, California. The nursery grew into the largest nursery in five western states. Before World War II, the name was changed to Simpson’s Garden Town and after the war it grew tremendously to the point where it had a fleet of over 70 trucks, 47 telephone lines, a FTD florist shop, full landscape department, lawn mower sales, pet shop, and several other services.

The nursery, at the end of a road that would become Colorado Boulevard of Rose Bowl fame, eventually was in the way of Southern California‘s rapid growth. In 1968, most of the nursery was purchased by the State of California to build the 210 Freeway. Simpson used the money from the sale to buy the 185-acre "Barrett House Ranch" in Jamul, near San Diego. Rather than retiring, he decided to stay in the nursery business, but now in a leisurely, laid back, and low-tech way. No phone, no salesmen, no deliveries...just good plant stock at a reasonable price. That’s way the nursery is still run. You drive up and down the wide lanes in the 25 acre nursery, put your purchases in your vehicle and pay for them at the office near the gate. Along with your receipt you get a nice cold apple.

Vehicles, especially trucks and travel trailers, are important part of the nursery. As you drive around you see many good old trucks parked amongst the oleanders, junipers, tomato plants and azaleas. They are not restored, just old trucks allowed to age gracefully in the warm California sunshine. There is also a long line of vintage trailers, again not restored but aligned like in an almost ghostlike trailer camp.

If you want to see nicely restored cars and trucks, over 50 of them, they are located in two large barns on the property. One barn holds prewar vehicles, including several Model T and A trucks. In the second, there are mostly post war models including a row of ’40s and ’50s models and another row of muscle cars.

But there is more. The vehicles are accompanied by a huge amount of contemporary memorabilia and automobilia. These include vintage gas pumps, signs, radios, boats, outboard motors, bicycles, and even a collection of garden nozzles. Nostalgia is everywhere. One room holds toy cars, trucks and motorcycles. Not restored, many are available for sale for quite reasonable prices.

Today, the nursery is operated Hal’s granddaughter, Cathy, and her husband, Lee. If you happen to be in the San Diego area, make sure to make the short drive to Jamul. The nursery is open daily except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years days and admission is entirely free. This is much more than a nursery or car museum, there is a large park with a gazebo for picnics and petting zoo. If you are there on a weekend, you are likely to see a car show as well. The nursery is a popular place for car clubs to hold their meetings and shows.