PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — City councilor and businessman Craig Green was honored by the Antique Automobile Club of America at its annual meeting held in Washington D.C.
Craig Green received the Augustus Post Memorial Award on Feb. 10 for recreating the spirit of the original Glidden Tours, which were promotional events run across the country by AAA from 1904 to 1913 and were aimed at increasing acceptance of the automobile.
It was given to Green because of how the city designed its antique automobile tour held in Presque Isle for cars built prior to 1932, with around 30 vehicles going out to various historical sites in Mapleton, Portage, Limestone, Loring, Easton and Mars Hill, to name a few.
“My real passion is for Cadillacs, Buicks, Oldsmobile, and the big General Motors cars,” Green said. “The Model T is fun because everyone waves.”
Green owns between 25 to 30 cars that span more than a century. The oldest car Green owns is a 1917 Model T Ford that is on display at the Aroostook Centre Mall and the newest car is a 2023 Cadillac. He has always had an interest in antique automobiles.
Green began going to the Antique Automobile Club of America’s regional meet in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in 2001 and has been attending for the past 22 years. Trying to start a car collection now is much more expensive than when he started. Green paid as little as $500 for his cars.
Green’s parents drove a 1969 Oldsmobile. When he turned 7, they bought a new car, but kept the old car. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Green and his family collected fenders and parts for the 1969 Oldsmobile. When Green completed college in 1993, they started to put the 1969 Oldsmobile back together and it was restored by 1994.
He drives his antique automobiles on a weekly basis but doesn’t have a favorite model. Green likes ones that bring him back to a nostalgic time and place to remind him of past friends, family, and history.
Green also partners with the Presque Isle Historical Society that uses his 1996 Cadillac hearse for the annual Haunted Hearse Tour held in the city since 2019.
The Augustus Post Memorial Award Green received was first presented in 1953 by AAA, and later picked up by the Automobile Club of America in 1959.
