After an Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival Parade of Classics, Jessica Butler Garrison walked into an antique store on Sixth Street and found a 1940s ivory and red rayon dress. It needed only a few buttons and fit perfectly. She paid $5 for it.
That dress started a collection that has grown over 20 years to several hundred dresses, coats, hats and shoes. Since May 13, part of it has been on display at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in "Threads & Treads," a limited-time exhibit that pairs women's fashion from the early 20th century with the cars of the same years. The exhibit runs through November.
Auburn's November starts and ends with homegrown events. The month opens with the last guided look at an exhibit built from an Auburn native's closet. It closes with a downtown parade on a Tuesday night, made up of floats, choirs, scout troops and church groups from around the area. Both have dates worth putting on the calendar this week.
Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m., the exhibit gets its farewell tour
The museum's November Highlights Tour is called "Threads & Treads: A Final Look." Butler Garrison leads it with Alyssa Wellington, the museum's director of marketing and communications. The tour takes guests behind the scenes of how the exhibit was put together. It includes light refreshments and drinks, and guests may get to see the period fashions worn by live vintage models.
The tour is free with museum admission and starts promptly at 11 a.m., according to the KPC News feature by Kathryn Bassett. The exhibit itself has been free with admission since it opened, so the tour costs nothing beyond the regular ticket.
The two leaders came up with the idea together. Butler Garrison and Wellington, who also loves vintage clothing, talked briefly at last year's ACD Festival and decided to make the exhibit happen. Butler Garrison's family ties to the building go back further. Her great-great-grandfather, Ralph Butler, worked at the automobile factory. The exhibit was a collaboration among the ACDA Museum, The Butler Family Foundation, The Butler Collection and Diskey Architectural Signs.
What hangs beside which car
The exhibit has 12 ensembles, plus five examples of men's fashion from the era that are on permanent display. The pieces aren't grouped in one gallery. They stand throughout the museum next to the cars they were matched with. Butler Garrison chose the cars by color palette and time period, so visitors can follow women's fashion and automobile styling changing side by side. These pairings are worth finding on a last visit:
- 1934 Duesenberg Model J: two brown velvet gowns, one from about 1929 to 1931 and the other from about 1933.
- 1931 Dodge boat: a green rayon swim dress from the 1930s, made partly with Lastex, which Butler Garrison describes as a "yarn that had a rubber core."
- 1930 Cord L-29: a lavender floral chiffon dress from the mid to late 1930s. It's one of her favorites, and it comes from the collection of Jill LeMin Lee, a librarian based in Pennsylvania.
- The oldest piece: a motoring duster from 1905 to 1915, shown with a lace-inset linen traveling suit from the 1910s.
Butler Garrison has worn every piece of her own that's on display. Two of the dresses are reproductions. The museum included them on purpose, to show that period clothing can be remade from vintage patterns. The exhibit program has a QR code that links to sellers of vintage clothing and accessories and to a vintage pattern lending library.
The KPC News feature quoted her on the connection between the clothes and the cars:
"I think that's really interesting, how the fashion changes as time passes, with the increase of the speed and mobility and women drivers, the clothing became lighter, less restrictive, more colorful, to reflect the cars."
That idea explains the layout. The velvet gowns stand beside the Duesenberg, and the lighter chiffon stands beside the 1930 Cord L-29.
Planning the last visit around the holiday calendar
The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It closes only on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 26, so the exhibit's final week includes one closed day. Admission as listed on the museum's visitor page:
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| Adult | $15 |
| Under 18 | $10 |
| Under 6 | Free |
| Family | $42 |
| Campus pass with NATMUS, adult | $25 |
| Campus pass with NATMUS, child 6–18 | $15 |
| Campus pass with NATMUS, family | $60 |
The campus pass also covers the National Automotive and Truck Museum next door. For one adult, the pass costs $10 more than the ACD Museum alone, which makes it worth considering for anyone who hasn't toured NATMUS lately. Groups of 10 or more adults pay $13 each with an advance reservation. Through Museums for All, eligible SNAP EBT cardholders can get free admission for up to four people.
Expect company in the middle of the month. Cedar Creek Anthology's Living Wax Museum performances take place at the museum on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 12 through 14, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. each day. Attendance is by invitation with an email RSVP, and invited guests get in free. On those mornings, a visit after 11 a.m. avoids the performance crowd.
For lunch after a late-morning visit, Mimi's Retreat at 125 E. 9th St. lists hours Tuesday through Saturday. Saturday is the one day the Nov. 7 tour and Mimi's are both open.
Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 7 p.m., downtown lights Frosty
Seventeen days after the farewell tour, the Downtown Auburn Business Association holds its Downtown Christmas Parade on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2026, at 7 p.m. The evening also includes the lighting of "Frosty." The parade ends at Courtyard Park at 7th and Cedar, where a holiday program and awards follow.
Tuesday of Thanksgiving week puts the parade on a school-and-work night, two days before the holiday. The museum is open until 5 p.m. that day, so the afternoon still works for a last walk through the exhibit before the parade.
The entry rules show who makes up the parade. DABA invites floats, dance groups, horse-drawn wagons and sleighs, cars, choirs, bands, civic organizations, church groups and school groups, and it asks entrants to use lights to make their entries shine. The guidelines also bar Santas and Mrs. Claus from the entries. Cash prizes go to first, second and third place in each of three categories.
For any group planning an entry, the schedule works backward from parade night:
- Saturday, Nov. 21: Drop off the entry form at Carbaugh Jewelers in downtown Auburn. The 2026 registration form is posted on DABA's site.
- 5 p.m. on Nov. 24: Entries may start entering the DeKalb County Fairgrounds. None are allowed before then, and no vehicles other than parade entries are allowed inside.
- 6:15 p.m.: All entries must be at the fairgrounds for lineup.
- 7 p.m.: The parade steps off and heads to Courtyard Park.
Participants can be dropped off at the main gate. DABA specifically asks scout leaders to make sure their kids know where to meet and which troop number they're with, because several troops line up at once.
The exhibit and the parade come from the same town
The Sixth Street antique store, the Labor Day Parade of Classics where Butler Garrison first dressed up as a child, and the ACD Festival conversation that started the exhibit are all part of Auburn's own calendar. So are the choirs, scout troops and church groups lining up at the fairgrounds on Nov. 24. Whoever wants a last look at the gowns beside the Model J has until the end of November. The best-guided version of that visit is this Saturday at 11 a.m.
At Lion & Christlieb, we follow Auburn's calendar the same way we follow its streets, from the car museum to the courthouse square. If a November weekend in Auburn has you wondering how your own place nearby compares in today's market, start with an instant home valuation and we'll walk you through it.
