The 1936 Pierce Arrow Motor Car Hiding in West Monroe, Louisiana

Charles Rand came to pick us up himself. He pulled up, smiled, and said get in. That is the kind of man he is.

He drove us to Vintage Vehicles, his private collection in West Monroe. We walked through the door and stopped. Filling the room in front of us, dark green, chrome catching the light, sat a 1936 Pierce Arrow motor car. Oregon plates. Suicide doors. Four headlights mounted on fenders that curve like something from a different century, which they are.

Most people who walk in have never heard of a Pierce Arrow. That is part of what makes this room what it is.

Who is Charles Rand

Charles L. Rand is a veteran and a mechanical engineer. He grew up near Meridian, Mississippi, got his driver's license at fifteen, and learned on a 1950 Chevrolet Fleetline. His first car, bought with a friend for $75, was a 1939 Ford 2-door Sedan. He worked on it in the backyard with three open-end wrenches, a pair of pliers, a hammer, and a roll of baling wire.

He served in the 153rd Tactical Air Reconnaissance National Guard unit, then in the U.S. Army, where he was stationed in Germany for nearly three years. After his discharge he attended Mississippi State University on the GI Bill and graduated in 1960 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

He has lived in Monroe since. He is loved by many.

It started in a Goodyear parking lot

In 1994, Charles was driving through Pine Bluff, Arkansas, when he noticed a 1936 Ford Deluxe Coupe sitting in a Goodyear store parking lot with a For Sale sign on the windshield. He drove past it. He came back. His wife Jane encouraged him to buy it. He did.

That was the beginning.

Thirty years later, Vintage Vehicles holds 17 automobiles: a 1939 Ford Coupe, a 1941 Ford Sedan, a 1953 Mercury Hardtop, two 1942 WWII Ford GPW Jeeps, a Model T that dates to the 1920s, and more than a dozen other antique and special-interest vehicles. The Early Ford V-8 collection alone spans nearly two decades of production. And then there is the Pierce Arrow.

The Pierce Arrow motor car

Pierce Arrow was an American luxury automobile manufacturer based in Buffalo, New York. At its peak, a Pierce Arrow cost more than a Rolls-Royce. Presidents rode in them. The company went bankrupt in 1938 and never built another car. Fewer than 4,000 are estimated to still exist worldwide.

The one in West Monroe is a 1936 model. It came from Oregon. It is in full working condition. Standing next to it, you understand immediately why people called these machines art.

The Model T and the hallway of history

Past the Pierce Arrow, the collection opens up. A black Model T sits under an American flag, a child doll in the passenger seat. The walls hold a collection of vintage Ohio license plates, stacked floor to ceiling. A hallway leads deeper into the building, lined with large framed black-and-white photographs of car transport from the early twentieth century. Each image is labeled. Each one is a document.

Published nationally

Charles Rand's story was featured in V-8 Times, the national magazine of the Early Ford V-8 Club, an international organization with members in every U.S. state and dozens of countries. His collection was also recognized by the Early Ford V-8 Foundation Museum in Auburn, Indiana. He showed us both publications. He was not boasting. He was sharing.

Jane's map

On one wall of the showroom hangs a large wooden world map. The inscription at the bottom reads: "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page." Saint Augustine. Below it, a small plaque: Donated by Jane H. Rand, August 2022.

Charles has read more than one page.

Visiting Vintage Vehicles

Vintage Vehicles is a private collection in West Monroe, Louisiana. It is not open to the public on a regular schedule, but Charles Rand welcomes visitors who reach out in advance. If you are a car enthusiast, a student, or simply curious, it is worth asking. The man came to pick us up himself.

More things to do in Monroe, Louisiana worth your time.