A free Chesterfield garage full of pre-war cars and dance organs

Behind an unassuming front in Chesterfield sits one of the better car collections in the state, and it costs nothing to see. Stahls Automotive is the personal collection of Ted and Mary Stahl, opened to the public in a big garage off North Bay Drive, and there’s no admission charge — just a donation box by the door if you’re moved to drop something in.

Inside is a lineup of rare and iconic automobiles, heavy on the brass-era and pre-war machines from the early decades of the automobile, when companies were still figuring out what a car should even look like. Polished, gleaming, lined up wheel to wheel under good lighting, they make the place feel like a frozen auto show from a hundred years ago.

The surprise is what shares the floor with them. The collection is just as serious about automated musical instruments — the elaborate, self-playing machines that filled dance halls and theaters before recorded music took over. There are grand dance organs, intricately built orchestrions that mimic a whole band, and a Mighty Wurlitzer theater organ, the kind that once rose out of the pit to accompany silent films. On the right day a volunteer will fire one up, and the room fills with the wheeze and thump of a machine playing itself.

It keeps unusual hours — open Tuesday afternoons and the first Saturday of most months — so it rewards a little planning. But it’s the rare museum where you can stand between a Model-era roadster and a pipe organ taller than you are, hear both the history and the music, and walk out without spending a dime. For a region built on the car, it’s a fitting place to spend an afternoon.