The first meeting of the Bay State Antique Auto Club was held at the home of Charles DeStefano on October 8, 1968.  The original suggestion for the name of the club was “The Metropolitan Antique Auto Club” but in November the name “Bay State Antique Auto Club” was put in place by a 10 - 2 vote.  Membership dues were $5.00 per person. 

Our founding members were: Charles and Victoria DeStefano, Earle and Ruth Hartshorn, Harvey Vogel, Edward Gooley, William Stevens, Fred Porfert, and George Hughes.

The following excerpts were taken from the Bay State Antique Auto Club Silver Anniversary Edition Newsletter and highlights the clubs first 25 years.

The first club officers were, at President- Lester Wax, Vice President- Ed Gooley, Treasurer-Charles DeStefano, Secretary and Membership- George Hughes.

Membership increased to 30 members.

The club’s primary goal was to secure a suitable meeting place.

Started to draft the club’s by-laws and to utilize name badges.

On June 17th members started meeting at St. John’s Methodist Church in Oakdale Square in Dedham, MA.

The first annual Christmas party was held at Artie’s Fireside Restaurant in Dedham.

In November Lester Wax introduced the idea to have a “Trading Bee” for the following year and the date was set for July 11th at the Larz Anderson Museum in Brookline.

The clubs by-laws were voted upon and approved.

The first BSAAC Trading Bee was considered a success with 36 vendor spaces sold with a $116.00 profit.

On June 24th the club officially became incorporated.

The club had 14 events, parades, and tours … everything from the Breakdown Tour to the Frostbite Tour.

Postage increased to $0.08 due to 7 pages of information.

The first “Fun Rally and Swap Meet” was held on September 10th in Canton, MA.

Started the “man and Woman of the Year” award to the member “who helped the club most throughout the year.

In April the first “Kick-Off” Social was held.  This was the first of many to come.

For the summer months the meetings were held at the Larz Anderson Museum.

Our Canton Fall Meet had 89 cars and 24 vendors.

Founding member Charles DeStefano passed away and the club dedicated an award in his honor to be presented to the “Outstanding Member of the Year”.

Our 74th meeting of the BSAAC was called to order on Tuesday, February 18th at 8:12 p.m. at the Larz Anderson Museum.

Celebrated on October 17th at the 116th club meeting.

Due to the clubs growth, meetings were moved to the Allin Congregational Church mid-year.

Auction income reached $113.00.

The club lost its site for the fall flea market and it was cancelled.

Our main show drew 419 cars and 83 flea market vendors attended.

The November flea market was held at Bezema Buick and all the vendor spaces were sold out.

In August the club held a “Members Only Auto Show” at Ridge Hill Reservation in Needham.

The fall flea market was held at Rodman Ford in Foxboro, MA.

The  Club also served 900 hamburgers, 400 sausages, 650 hot dogs, 39 dozen donuts, 1100 cups of coffee, and went trough 100 cases of soda.

Due to the success of the July show no fall flea market was held.

Meetings were held for 4 months at the Italian American Club in Dedham.

Our 14th Annual Car Show brought 626 antique cars and was highlighted in the Patriot Ledger newspaper.

A $200 “Tool Award” was awarded to an outstanding Dedham High School Auto Shop student.

Today, in the year 2008, the Bay State Antique Auto Club is financially secure and has over 250 family memberships along with 16 Charter members.  In our 39 year history we have had 22 different Presidents, 29 Vice Presidents, 16 Treasurers, 27 Secretaries and 30 Membership Chairpersons.

We will be holding our 37th Annual Car Show on July 13th and our Vintage Era Car Show on September 21st.   We would like to encourage everyone to drop on by our shows or attend our monthly meetings (meetings are held on the 2nd Thursday of every month except December and January at 7:30 pm at the Endicott Estate in Dedham, MA).

Come join us!