The Studebaker National Museum today

Opened October 2005 — 201 Chapin Street

The building: In October 2005 the wandering ended. The museum opened in a three-story, 55,000-square-foot building at 201 Chapin Street — one trade account gives 56,000 square feet, and the museum's own published figure of 55,000 is followed here — designed by South Bend's James Childs Architects with design elements taken from Studebaker's factory buildings, its form an evocation of the works: a factory for keeping factories' memory. The building is connected to The History Museum's and shares its entrance on the Washington and Chapin campus; in the Park Service's documentation of the neighboring Oliver property it is noted as under separate ownership, the City of South Bend's — the city holding the building, the nonprofit corporation of 1985 running the museum inside it, which is the 1966 agreement kept at last.

The collection grown: From the deeded core the collection has grown to about 120 vehicles, of which some seventy are on interpreted display at any time across the galleries. With the vehicles came the paper: the museum holds the Studebaker archives, more than seventy tons of corporate minutes, correspondence, engineering drawings, photographs and production records of Studebaker and Packard. The last cars are here — the final South Bend car, the red Daytona hardtop of 20 December 1963, and the final Hamilton car of 1966, both preserved in the museum's keeping, as the Studebaker record tells. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums — it stands on the Alliance's accredited list by 2013 — and was described in 2018 as one of only three automobile museums in the United States to have earned that accreditation, the others being the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum and The Henry Ford.

Sources:

1. Studebaker National Museum, as carried by Clio and Visit South Bend Mishawaka — the October 2005 opening, 55,000 square feet, three levels, climate-controlled galleries and storage, and the James Childs Architects design from Studebaker factory elements.
2. Classic Cars Journal (2014) — the building at 56,000 square feet in its account, and the collection of some 120 vehicles.
3. National Park Service, Oliver House additional documentation — the Studebaker Museum (2005) connected to The History Museum's main building, at 201 Chapin Street, "under separate ownership by the City of South Bend."
4. Midwest Guest (2014) and Hemmings (2018) — about 120 vehicles with some 70 on display; the archive of over 70 tons of Studebaker and Packard papers; and the accreditation standing, one of three accredited automobile museums.
5. American Alliance of Museums, List of Accredited Museums (August 2013) — the Studebaker National Museum, South Bend, on the accredited list.