The Carolina Harley-Davidson Museum is housed inside Carolina Harley-Davidson, the second largest Harley dealership on the East Coast, 2830 E. Franklin Blvd., Gastonia. Vintage motorcycles and early cycling pictures along with other motorcycling memorabilia are displayed throughout the 70,000 square-foot building. It is open to the public at no charge.

Owners Click and Diane Baldwin are longtime Harley fans who opened their original store in 1988. Click's parents rode Harleys before he was born. Outside his office is an enlargement of a black-and-white photograph of his parents, Lynn and Ernest Baldwin, taken in 1953, riding a 1948 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead. Click's mother was pregnant with him at the time. "This is a lifelong dream for me," Click said.

The popularity of Harley-Davidsons is at an all-time high in America after events of 9/11 and the resurgence in patriotism, amplified by the recent 105th anniversary of this legendary American manufacturer.