[VIDEO] After a Collector Passed Away, His Home and Cars Were Turned Into an Automotive Museum

Nov 16, 2024

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[VIDEO] After a Collector Passed Away, His Home and Cars Were Turned Into an Automotive Museum

Jim Feneis had the right idea. The late Minnesota car collector once described his abode as “my garage with an attached house.”

Inside that garage, he displayed a lifetime of cars and related memorabilia, including a pickup belonging to his dad, his mom’s car, a black C1 Corvette convertible, a 1969 Super Bee, motorcycles, pickups, scooters, and even a 1963 Polaris Snow Traveler (a single-seat snowmobile).

After beginning his career in the family oil business and then starting First Fuel Banks with his brother in the early ’80s, Jim passed away in 2023 at age 67.

After a Collector Passed Away, His Home and Cars Were Turned Into an Automotive Museum

Before his death, however, he set up the James Feneis Charitable Foundation with the very specific aim to turn his beloved garage into a museum. The Sauk Rapids Planning Commission this week approved his proposal for the Idle Ridge Car Museum, to be located at 920 10th St. NE in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota.

“He’d say, ‘This is my garage with an attached house,'” his friend and Foundation spokesperson Bonnie Lenzmeier told KSTP 5 News. “He wanted this to be for all the local kids to come and visit, see the cars and see the history upstairs and see the neon signs.”

She says Jim bought the property that overlooks Highway 10 about 40 years ago, so he could overlook the east side of St. Cloud because he loved the area so much.

The museum, located in the two-level garage, is expected to open next summer. The main level has a couple of cars, an indoor car wash, a 1950s-style diner, and many historic signs from Central Minnesota like the Herberger’s Sign, St. Cloud Glass, and Gold ‘N Plump, among hundreds of others. Most of the cars are kept on the lower level.