Evergreen Historic Automobiles and The Dogwood Room
Evergreen Historic Automobiles began in the early 1970’s as an extension of Robert W. Plaster grew up during the depression, lost his father early, and worked all of his life trying to make up. As a young man he dreamed of owning a car...ANY car. His hours of hard work paid off and he spent many years trying to own all of the cars that he coul
d never afford as a youth. The first antique automobile purchased was a 1931 Ford Model A Sedan. It was purchased at the time because Bob thought it would be a fun thing for the family and friends to enjoy. This automobile is still part of the permanent inventory. Bob purchased the next few cars due to, usually, some particular interest. However, most of these cars were not highly valuable pieces except in their low mileage, condition and originality. Bob Plaster’s son, Steve, developed an early interest in old cars while in high school. Steve undertook the responsibility of keeping the cars clean, batteries charged, tires inflated, and of course driving the cars regularly to insure proper lubrication. During Steve’s high school and college years, he restored several automobiles, some of which are still in the inventory, and some of which were sold. It soon became apparent that it was much more economical to purchase cars that were already professionally restored than to restore them “in house.”
In the mid 80’s, Bob and Steve recognized the investment potential of the automobiles and began to focus their attention more on the most desirable and rapidly appreciating makes and models. Since that time, the vast majority of the cars purchased have been convertibles. Bob Plaster’s primary interest was always in the classic body styles of the 30’s and 40’s. As time and finances permitted, Steve’s interest in muscle cars and cars of the 50’s and 60’s expanded the group in that direction to include Mustangs, Shelby’s, Corvettes and others. At some point, Bob and Steve realized that they had a great deal of Ford and General Motors automobiles represented. As a result, they began a search to acquire representative samples of many of the labels that have distinguished themselves in the history of the American automobile, whether domestically produced or not. This effort has led to the inclusion of such automotive Marks as LaSalle, Pierce Arrow, Auburn, Cord, Desoto, Edsel, Indian, Kiser, Checker, Mercedes, Jaguar, Kelsey, Delage, Delahaye, Duesenberg, Kiblinger, Shamrock, Owen, Woodill and more. Evergreen Historic Automobiles is now proud to boast a total of more than 175 manufacturers represented. The rare and the unusual are the normal here. The majority of these automobiles were convertibles and, in fact, Evergreen Historic Automobiles contains a high percentage (90%) of open and/or convertible cars. Open cars have proven over the years to be the most rapidly appreciating body style in the collector car industry. Dean Kruse, of Kruse International, has been quoted as saying, “When the top goes down, the price goes up.” Dean is one of the nation’s leading experts on the collector car industry and a good friend of Bob and Steve. At this time Evergreen Historic Automobiles is housed in a 150,000 square foot facility located near Lebanon, Missouri. Although it has always been a private facility for invited guests of the family, it will now be open for public tours, by appointment only. The cars are bought, sold and upgraded regularly. Bob and Steve were as close as a father and son could be and found that their interest in, and love for, old cars was one common labor of love that they could share and devote time to, together. Newly added to Evergreen Historic Automobiles is the beautiful Dogwood Room, a 5,000 square foot banquet facility. The facility adjoins the “Car Barns” and will be available for banquets, wedding receptions, sales meetings, corporate events, cocktail receptions, political events, and many other group gatherings.
