Robert Olson, president of Klairmont Kollections Automotive Museum. (Photo by Karie Angell Luc/for Chronicle Media)

Now here’s a pit stop to consider while motoring around Chicagoland.

Steer your vehicle and enthusiasm to the free parking available at Klairmont Kollections Automotive Museum, 3117 N. Knox Ave., Chicago, an attraction called, “a hidden gem,” by its president Robert Olson.

“A lot of people just simply don’t know about us,” Olson said. “So, check this place out and put it on your bucket list.”

According to the website (https://klairmontkollections.com), Klairmont Kollections is a not-for-profit foundation that strives to engage the next generation and educate youth about the significant role automobiles have played in history.

In its 100,000-square-foot building, Klairmont Kollections has something for everyone.

“We are a museum that previously was a private collection,” Olson said.

Late automotive enthusiast Larry M. Klairmont of Highland Park was a highly decorated World War II veteran and self-made businessman who made the collection possible.

Klairmont Kollections has more than 300 eclectic and award-winning vehicles from the 1900s to present. Expect to see one-off treasures in the curated inventory, meaning these classics are one-of-a-kind.

Make sure to build in time during your visit to read signage and plaques near collectives to learn the history as you take in the experience.

“Cars also tell stories, they tell stories of that era,” Olson said.

The museum features exhibits where vehicles are parked indoors for an outdoor drive-in scene, for example.

Watching the 1963 American epic comedy film “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” are mannequin spectators seated in open air convertibles, allowing museum visitors to imagine what it was like at drive-ins of yesteryear.

There are many people who recall station wagons when kids would pile up in the back. Remember those woody sides or maybe the color of a childhood family wagon?

Or how about being a passenger in a sports car with the top down in full sun, making memories with a motorist who had a windy passion for that beloved muscle car?

“These stories are all personal to us,” Olson said. “We each kind of have a relationship, or at least those of us that are automotive enthusiasts, I remember being a kid sitting in the back seat of my parents’ car and going on family trips.

“And when you walk past that car here, or interact with a guest, who says, ‘Oh my God, that vehicle my uncle had or my grandmother,’ these are the kind of cohesive things that bring us together,” Olson said.

Visitors Dan and Laura Burdick of Grand Junction, Colorado lived in Mundelein for 32 years.

“The place is just so amazing that when we come back into town to see family and friends, we try and stop back here and see the museum,” Dan Burdick said. “It’s always something cool to look at.

“It’s always fun to come back and reminisce. It’s always changing here.”

Laura Burdick said, “I like all the fancy cars.”

Dan Burdick grew up in Oak Lawn and Laura Burdick grew up in the Roseland south neighborhood of Chicago.

“I think it makes you feel good to go back in time and look at these kind of cars that I remember that my dad had one like this a long time ago and my uncle had one like that, and the smell smells like my uncle’s garage when we would always go out and used to tinker on, you know, gas-powered and oil-powered stuff,” Dan Burdick said. “It’s wonderful.”

David Blair of Barrington was also a museum guest, visiting for the third time.

“It’s definitely unique,” Blair said. “It’s pretty neat … some neat stuff here.

“It’s unique because there’s a lot of one-off things and stuff that you won’t see anywhere else which is kind of nice. I think we need to go back to the basics. And some of the basics are pretty advanced for back then. It’s always good to remember where you came from.”

Olson said the museum offers school curriculum principles of STEAM, science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

“I’ve talked to teachers,” Olson said. “Teachers have said to me, ‘Well, why would we want to bring children on a field trip to a car museum? Cars are cool, but what’s educational about them?’ And ironically, these cars represent the science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics of their day.

“So, that STEAM model of learning that’s employed by so many educational institutions, all of it is represented here. So, the best of the technology of that particular time was presented in each of these vehicles and we can see how cars have literally driven us into the future. They have paralleled us. The cars have driven us.”

The museum has a private event space that can accommodate large groups for special occasions such as weddings, car clubs, charity fundraisers or weddings, as possibilities.

For a preview of available event space for bookings, visit https://klairmontkollections.com/events/.