Wheels O’ Time

A great medium sized museum for adults or children. We do see a lot of museums and found this one both unique and interesting.
A nice tower clock mechanism, neon, cars, buggies, and lot of littles.
Exhibits are thoughtfully laid out with context in mind.
Check out the barbershop quartet of former famous leaders with a certain leader in the «tank»
A separate building has a Ford car museum with rotating ford cars on display.
Beautiful restorizations, nice displays and a friendly staff make this independent museum worthy visit.

My two-​year-​old son has a blast every time we come here. For him, the highlights are the model trains, the button-​operated circus scene, the player piano, the antique fire truck he can sit in, and the steam locomotive outside. Kids can easily spend a couple hours just wandering and pressing buttons.
That said, this makes for an interesting visit for adults as well, as there’s classic cars, antique machinery, antique toys, and all sorts of other things to see. Their website does a good job of describing it all. The volunteers that work at the museum (mostly retired) are happy to talk about any of the exhibits.
A couple important notes — the museum is only open from May to October, Wed-​Sun, 12−5pm. There’s no air conditioning — it can get a bit warm on hot afternoons — so plan accordingly.

This place has a lot of great Peoria history including plenty of kitsch! There are old cars, tractors, toys, the train car that used to be at Vonachen’s Old Place and so much more. They even have some fun coin-​op displays.
The museum is open seasonally, so you might want to check with them before stopping by.