Kokomo Automotive Museum looking for new home after 20 years

KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) - An automotive museum in a central Indiana city with a long history in the U.S. auto industry is looking for a new home.

The Kokomo Automotive Museum is set to close its doors May 18 after its current lease at the Kokomo Event and Conference Center ends.

Development director Jeff Shively tells the Kokomo Tribune the museum's rent was set to increase "tremendously."

He declined to say where the museum's new home will be located. But Howard County Commissioner Paul Wyman says he expects it will become part of a planned downtown Kokomo hotel and conference center project.

Kokomo has been part of the auto industry since 1894. That's when Elwood Haynes invented one of the first automobiles in the U.S. in the city about 40 miles north of Indianapolis.

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Information from: Kokomo Tribune, http://www.ktonline.com