My related essay on the Baker electric car is here: Technology of Baker Electric Car
My related essay on technology of Owen Magnetic car is here: Technology of Owen Magnetic car with Entz electromagnetic transmission
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Wells car photos
Closeup hi-res photos
Wells related links
Wells Museum 80 car collection

Addendum
Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport ME
 

        I had no association with the recently closed Wells Antique Auto Museum, but as a tribute to it and its founder Glen Gould I am posting some pictures that I took at the museum in 2010 and 2011. The sign outside said 80 cars all tightly packed into a small non-descript building on rt 1 in Wells Me. My pictures are just a sampling of its quirky, wonderful collection of vintage cars, many of which were from the earliest days of motor cars, so-called 'brass era cars', cars which Glen Gould had rescued in rural NE and restored. My aim in taking the pictures and selecting which to post is largely picture quality. Model identification comes from a combination of signage in the photos, other Wells sites, and vintage car image searches.

        I had been to the Well Museum several times over the years while vacationing in ME but was disappointed when in 2014 on yet another planned visit I arrived and found it permanently closed. I knew it had been there a long time, since late 70s according to the auto museum's history. The man who assembled the collection was Glen Gould. He was a salesman who traveled all around rural NE and was always on the look out for old cars to acquire and restore. A visit to the museum was not just to see the cars, but to play its many antique music players scattered among the cars. (I said this place was quirky.) I got the impression that at least some of the staff was volunteers. I doubt this 'easy to miss' museum with its small parking lot brought in much money, so with the passing of its founder and less interest in the collection in later generations of the family, it may have been worth more to break up than keep intact. (One tidbit I came across showing the value of the Wells collection is that the bid price at auction for its 1941 Chrysler Town and Country was 250k!) It's too bad it has closed because it was a fun way to spend some time while on vacation in ME, and unlike many other auto museums in northern NE, this one was conveniently located, on the highway between the popular vacation areas of Kenneybunkport and Ogunquit on the southern ME coast.

My Photos
       Below are thumbnails of the cars and music players and further below a bunch hi-res closeups. With the exception of the outside view of the museum all these pictures were taken by me a few years ago with my wonderful Cannon S70 camera. The museum sign below says "80 cars", so clearly these photos cover only a small fraction of the collection.

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Abandoned Wells Auto Museum web site
        An of this writing, the old Wells Auto Museum web site still is online [http://wellsautomuseum.com/collection.htm], but clearly it has been abandoned, because it does not even mention that the museum has been closed and some pages are gone. It does, however, contain a list of the collection (below) and a bio of the founder, but no pictures of the cars.

Wells Auto Museum History (from its old site)
        "In 1946 Glen and Judith Gould were given a Stanley Steamer that was found in the Vermont barn cellar of an Uncle. Finally, after hours of backbreaking restoration work Glen was able to fire up the old car. Hearing the Stanley run for the first time was all it took for Glenn to become hooked. Through his career as a traveling salesman Glenn was able to amass a large collection of brass era cars. He would head out on the road with an empty trailer and return with a car that he had pulled out of a barn, field, or chicken coop. One by one he brought them back to the way they were the day they rolled out of the factory. Over the years the collection grew and eventually the Gould's decided to open their first museum in Meredith New Hampshire. By the late 70's they had outgrown that space and moved the collection to their current location in Wells." (notice even on its own site the museum founder's first name is spelled two different ways: Glen and Glenn)

        I was curious about the hi-wheeler car at Wells. It looks so different from all the other early cars. What was the purpose of those large wheels? Turns out Wikipedia has a page on hi-wheeler cars. This was a body style unique to US and was made by a lot of companies prior to 1910. The advantage to the driver was the large wheels provided higher road clearance, which was useful for the early primitive roads, and from a manufacturing point of view these wood spoke, solid tire wheels were essentially wagon wheels.

Wells related links
        An 8 min YouTube video taken in summer 2013 just prior to the museum closing. Because the camera was kept running as the videographer walked around while you don't get more than a passing view of the cars, you get a real sense of how the museum looked, how the cars were packed tightly together, all the music players scattered about, plus the amazing about of other stuff that had been collected from the period displayed in cabinets and on the walls. The place was a treasure trove. As other have noted, the tight packing of the cars made photography difficult. As a practical matter it was just impossible for the visitor to get a good shot of many of the cars.

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZWByhsZyQM

        With my images in hand I did a Bing image search for some of the collection's more unusual and featured cars, and in this way found a few other sites with pictures also taken at the Wells Museum. A nice collection of photos taken at the Wells is at the site below. Found this site searching for the International Hi-wheeler.

         http://douging.smugmug.com/Cars/Automotive-Museums/Wells-Auto-Museum/

        Searching for the 1909 Miniature Pierce Arrow I found a Wells picture of it at this site. This site run, which is run by a vintage car enthusiast, is well organized and has 83 photos taken at the museum on a visit there in 2010. The 2nd link is the root site [/vintagecars], and it has dozens of links to vintage car events in NE area.

         http://www.linwoodstreet.com/wells
         http://www.linwoodstreet.com/vintagecars/

         Searching the Baker Electric car I located a picture of its battery compartment that I recognized was taken at Wells. There is just a couple of Wells pictures here plus some background on the Baker electric car company.

         http://www.generationhighoutput.com/1908-baker-electric-car/

        And a few pictures of Wells here from 2002 taken with a 'disposable camera'.

         http://www.seacoastnh.com/dct/wellsautomuseum.html

        The french site below has an extensive, historic look at a huge number of antique cars organized by decade and manufacturer, but with only fair picture quality.  I located this site searching on the 1900 Crestmobile, and guess what? It's picture of its 1900 Crestmobile was clearly taken at the Wells auto museum (through the same window)!  (Crestmobile was manufactured in Cambridge MA.)

         http://www.antiqbrocdelatour.com/Les-collections/voitures-anciennes/les-voitures-anciennes-de-1900-a-1909-p2-17.html

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Wells Museum 80 car collection
        Here is a list of the Wells Auto Museum collection of 80 cars taken from its (old) web site, cleaned up and sorted by model year. (This list was undated. The 1909 Maxwell is missing from it, and the oldest car in the collection, Crestmobile, is shown as 1901, whereas in the museum the signage said 1900.)
 

        While searching for Wells auto sites, I came across a link to walking trails in Sandford Me that look interesting. Sandford is 11 miles NW from Wells exit of Me Turnpike (10 miles NE of North Berwick ME). The Sanford 'rail trail' looks like the Sandford equivalent of the Kennybunkport area 'bridle path' trail, which is also an old rail spur, that runs from the road into Kenneybunkport (near bridge) to the town of Kennybunk. Sandford trails -- rail trail:

         http://www.sanfordmaine.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={035DD107-FB55-4DA2-A8F1-9A427B733CC8}

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Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport ME
        In the same spirit as the Wells Antique Auto museum, and in fact located just a few miles north of Wells, is a working museum with a wonderful collection of restored antique trolleys, the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport ME. I have taken a bunch of pictures here over the past few years. Here are a few shots I took last fall (Oct 12, 2016) on a beautiful day with colorful ME fall foliage in the background.

        Browsing the museum's collection shows that open air car 838 was built in 1905. It was used until 1948 for special occasions (ferrying football fans from the railroad station to the Yale Bowl). It seats 75, weight 36,500 pounds and is powered by two Westinghouse motors (65 hp each). A discussion of the lights in the car indicates that the overhead trolley runs at 500V to 600V as five 120 V bulbs in series are used to light the interior.

Car 838

Handsome open car 838, built in 1905, seats 75, in service until 1948, restored at Seaside Trolley Museum, Kenneybunkport ME

Wow, that's some nice workwork in restored car 838

Visitors  get to take a couple of mile trip on the restored trolleys

visitors taking a trolley ride on the museum's closed track on nice fall day in ME (10/12/16)

        A look around the museum shows that restoring trolleys is a huge amount of work. The museum must have a large staff of skilled dedicated volunteers. Here's I picture I took of a trolley under restoration in their restoration barn. Looks more like a complete rebuild to me!