[EDITORS NOTE] Updated version with NEW photos for 2023 – Available Here!
A Morgan fan from way back, Mike used two two-car garages to store five-to-six Morgans at a time. Located behind his home, it was a convenient way to enjoy his hobby, but gave him limited space to enjoy his collectibles pertaining to cars, gas, and oil, artifacts related to Los Angeles history, his family history, Disney history, and much more. Mike is a consummate collector’s collector and he makes it work. His house is a shrine to collecting with unique items like a wooden phone booth extracted from a *ahem* gentlemen’s club from the 1930s.
The white is likely the first thing to strike visitors when entering Mike’s garage. It’s so noticeable, it’s not noticeable above the visually engaging wall décor and, of course, collection of Morgans. The lengthy red, black, and white banner on the wall is an original destination tape for a bus.The wall is laden with framed art, some from concours events, some from historically significant moments – the large black-and-white image of an arched building on the left is a picture of Mike’s family store from back in the day.Amid the various art, Mike has built a nice reading area of various magazines and concours programs.The white Morgan is a famous three-wheeler vehicle, something Morgan has largely become well known for over the years, and Mike has collected about nine Morgans, some more modern, others from the earlier days.Aside from his love of Morgan, Mike also has a great appreciation for Disney. The wooden wall unit contains a number of unique pieces from Disney, including a Mickey ear television set that he can actually watch and enjoy movies on. Interestingly, a good number of the signs and pieces have a story that Mike is happy to share with people. We wonder what the English soldier collection is all about.Spending time in among a fleet of Morgans, it’s easy to see why people are romanced by them. They had an inherent charm to them, and the fact that in the day and age of modernized this and analytics that, it’s astonishing to learn that these cars are largely built in the same way the earliest examples were so long ago – piece by piece, in various sections, by craftspeople who’ve been working at Morgan since they apprenticed years back.Outside, the garage is fairly non-descript, the backside of a hair salon with a few parking spaces. The foliage growing on the walls gives it a softer look but all in all, no one would think about what’s behind the large roll up door. Afterall, it’s just a hair salon, right?
It’s truly a treat visiting Mike’s abode. One day he upped the ante and made a little more room for the Morgans. Buying a square building nearby, he was able to lease the front to a beauty parlor and closed off the rear section for himself. A beautifully open space, Mike was able to find parking for all of his Morgans and create a museum of sorts celebrating all the aforementioned elements he loves to collect. With a coated and speckled concrete floor, he painted the walls and overhead white, added gallery lighting, bookshelves and seating areas, and proceeded to gather specific genres among one another lending a certain cohesiveness to the entire scene.
