Trustee Les MacKenzie said the Balclutha Lodge that used to meet in the Douglas St building, built in 1912, handed back its charter and was disbanded.
The building was ceded to the lodge at Clinton, which took the most valuable items from the building, donated what was left to the South Otago Museum and put the building up for sale.
Clutha District Council district inspector Ray Applegarth said there was a lot of interest in the building.
"I think people were just [checking] it out. There were all sorts of options - a craft centre, a cafe, a picture theatre; a museum was one of them."
The building was bought by Stirling man Cameron Luke, who intends turning it into a classic car museum.
Originally from Wanganui, Mr Luke "met a local girl" and moved to South Otago seven years ago.
He was attracted to the building "because it is quite an old building," he said.
"I'm a mechanic by trade. I've been involved with classic cars for more than 35 years."
Mr Luke plans to convert the back half of the lodge into a display area, but is still waiting on engineers to construct a certified entry point and sign off resource consent, so could not say when the museum would open.
He had only had the building for a couple of weeks and did not want to rush in and make big changes.
"I'm going to take it easy, and get some feedback."
