Albuquerque’s Triple R Museum – The Collectors’ Collection

Robert G. Easterling

Cedar Crest, NM

As you pull into the Triple R Museum you sense that this may be an extraordinary establishment. Farm implements, tools, and assorted parts surround the driveway and small parking area. There’s a tall Texaco sign, the Statue of Liberty, a windmill – and an 1895 steam tractor. The front end of an old car peers down from the top of one building. There are many intriguing, mostly unidentifiable (by the neophyte), rusting items stacked around and hanging from outside walls and fences. Then, when owner Richard Rinehart welcomes you inside any of the three buildings that comprise the museum all doubt is dispelled. This is a spectacular, one-family, one-of-a-kind collection of Americana – tools, toys, and dishes especially, but there’s much more. Much, much more. You have to see it to believe it.

The Rinehart family, parents Elmo and June, both now deceased, and son Richard (the three Rs) began collecting in 1965 when Elmo purchased a 1925 wood-sided Chevrolet truck from an upstate New York garage, brought it back to Albuquerque, and restored it (the first of three restorations, the last two necessitated by outdoors New Mexico storage). This truck has been a prize-winning star of classic car shows over the years and Elmo was always a center of attraction with his stories of early days in Las Vegas, NM, and Albuquerque.

This foray to NY blossomed into three decades of annual trips east, often 2-3 months in length, generally to Pennsylvania and timed to coincide with the Hershey and Carlisle antique vehicle shows. In the 70s, a time in which Rust-Belt states were losing population, you could buy all sorts of good stuff on street corners in every town, at great prices, says Richard. So, for roughly the reason people climb mountains – because it’s there – the Rineharts collected. They drove a 1947 Flxible (no e, deliberately) bus converted into a motor home, pulled a trailer, and strapped stuff on top that wouldn’t fit inside. They didn’t stop at every flea market and second-hand shop, but as Elmo was quoted in a Smithsonian magazine article, Feb. 1991, “just the ones that were open.”

Elmo, who worked in the tool room of the Santa Fe Railroad shops in Albuquerque, developed his passion for tools into a world-class collection. There are thousand of wrenches, dating from the 17^th century to the present, in a myriad of designs, shapes, and colors (farm implement tools were color-coded -- e.g., green for John Deere). These are displayed from walls and ceilings and stacked in piles. This collection was highlighted in the above-mentioned issue of the Smithsonian magazine (the adjacent picture of some of Elmo’s “quick adjustables” is from that magazine). As the Smithsonian states, “Elmo’s collection brings on an almost instant and giddy sensory overload in visitors, affecting even the most focused connoisseurs with vertigo.” Consider yourself warned.

June’s interest was glassware and pottery. Starting with her grandmother’s set of china, she collected dozens of sets and hundreds of dining pieces. These date from 1870 and include a large collection of pre-WWI cut glass items. A guest from Pennsylvania who knows antique glassware and who we took to the Triple R could only shake her head in amazement: “I’ve never seen anything like this.” She volunteered to come back to dust and catalog just to commune with this collection. Many other household items have also been collected by the Rineharts – electric fans and radios, for just two random examples.

Richard’s passion was toys. There are toy trains, planes, cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles. There are smurfs, Disney characters, and, naturally enough, “Tickle-Me-Elmo’s.” You remember those rectangular lunch boxes with sappy decals your mother bought you for school? Chances are Richard has one of them. He has over 100 Erector sets. Why? Because he had one as a boy and really liked it.

Elmo and Richard shared an interest in antique automobiles. One of the museum’s three buildings houses four such vehicles, including the above-mentioned 1925 Chevrolet truck. His mother’s 1962 Chevrolet Impala convertible that he restored holds particular meaning for Richard. The Rineharts also worked to stimulate and promote a wider interest in old cars and Americana. Elmo was instrumental in starting Albuquerque’s Model T Club and the museum is the site of monthly meetings of this club, the Veteran Motor Car Club of America, and the Hudson Club. Pottery and glass clubs also meet there. Members of these clubs and their guests are about the only people who know about the Triple R Museum – it’s not advertised or listed in the Yellow Pages. Many of these visitors have not ventured beyond the immediate meeting area, which is loaded, but there is more to see.

The Triple R is a private museum and not open to the general public. However, Richard invites groups and clubs who share his fondness for antique Americana to schedule a visit. Plan ahead. Tours can be scheduled by calling Richard at 344-9820. No admission is charged but a donation is appreciated.