The Original Collectors Series: Eagan, MN
“Dennis Erickson was a longtime member of Celebration Church in Eagan, MN, where my husband is pastor. After Dennis died in December, we discovered he’d left his home to the church in his will. He had never married or had children. The church was his family.
It turned out that along with the house came his collection of more than 30,000 model cars. Think of any car and you could find it here; every make, every color. He started collecting when he was 9 years old, and he was 69 when he passed away. We calculated that he collected more than one car per day while he was alive. It was a hobby he and his father did together. They also worked on real-life classic cars, and Dennis left several of those to the church as well.
There were cars in every corner of his house, from floor to ceiling. He built custom shelves, which lined every hallway, the bedrooms, the bathrooms, closets, kitchen. Everywhere you looked, there were more cars. When we realized the scope of the collection, we were amazed at what he had created and then so generously gifted to the church. You could tell this had been a real passion, and every time we walked in there, we were just walking around in awe. A feeling of absolute gratefulness and astonishment.” — Dana Ross
1971 Plymouth Roadrunner Promo Car
1967 Plymouth GTX Die-Cast Car
1967 Plymouth GTX Hemi Die-Cast Car
1967 Oldsmobile 442 Convertible Die-Cast Car
Marx Vintage Tin Litho Wind-Up Toy Motorcyclist
Vintage Marx Dick Tracy Tin Squad Car
Highway 61 1948 International KB-5 Pumper Fire Truck
Vintage Tin Toy Car and House Trailer
1959 Cadillac Superior Crown Royale Ambulance Die-cast Car
1970's Metal U-Haul Moving Truck
Farmall 806 Diesel Die-Cast Tractor
Franklin Mint Agajanian Special 98 Die-Cast Car
Limited Edition Franklin Mint 1968 Airstream Trailer
1930 Die-Cast International Wrecker Tow Truck from Danbury Mint
1917 Harley Davidson Motorcycle with Sidecar Die-Cast
Vintage Tin Petrolette Oil Tanker Toy Truck
1965 Chevrolet Corvette 1:8 Scale Model by Monogram
1967 Oldsmobile 442 Convertible Die-Cast Car
1967 Dodge Coronet Die-Cast Car
Die-Cast 1967 Impala SS
1940 Ford Tow Truck Die-cast Vehicle
Case IH Steiger STX500 Quad Tractor Die-cast
Die-Cast Mack Dump Truck with Snow Plow
Die-Cast 1946 Dodge Power Wagon Tow Truck from The Danbury Mint
Kiade Riva Aquarama Special Boat Model
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 Replica Plane
Vintage Tin Steamboat
Limited Edition Die-Cast Open Wheel Indy 500 Racecar
AMT 1955 Cadillac Coupe De Ville Promo Friction Car
1957 Pontiac Star Chief Friction Promo Car
1966 Chevy Malibu SS Die-cast Car
Highway 61 1967 Oldsmobile 442 Die-Cast Car
Three Die-Cast 1950s Plymouth Model Cars, One Limited Edition
Collection of 1950s Chevrolet Convertible Die-Cast Cars
Three Ford Ranchero Die-Cast Cars
1950s Ford Die-Cast Cars
Did anyone know about Dennis’s collection?
People knew he had a passion for cars, but nobody knew about this extensive collection in his home. When he got together with other people it was always at a restaurant or at their houses, never in his own space.
It sounds like he took great care of all the pieces.
He was meticulous. Everything was perfectly clean, lined up and dusted. You could tell he treated all of them equally. In his living room, he had a chair and table with cans of cleaner set up, and he’d go through all the cars in rotation to clean them and Armor All the wheels. He also kept documentation. He would record every time he bought something, and then he’d go back and if he had Armor-All’d the tires, he’d note that. The mental capacity it would take to manage this in the way that he did was beyond impressive.
What was Dennis like?
Dennis was an engineer and was retired when he passed away. Once there was a big ice storm, and he was so devoted that he made his way to the church and crawled across the parking lot to open the doors so that he could be there to greet people when they came in. He was extremely kind and welcoming.
