Old - New car dealer buildings
 

Anyone have any still standing in their area??? My reason for posting is that I was at an antique shop in my town with my daughter recently and while on tour, I discovered a few pics of that building back in the 40's. Turns out the building was a Dodge dealer back then and they moved a lot of cars. The grandaugher of the owner of that Dodge store actualy still worked in the antique store. The Dodge store closed in the early sixties and she told me a few stories about it. Very cool.

Before it was a Dodge store it was a Chevrolet dealer for about 10 years. The owner of the Chevy store was the one who built it.

Ill post some pics later.

The Pontiac dealership my GTO came from is still standing, it is now an archery a few year's ago you could still make out the Indian head and the word Pontiac on the building, I wish I had a photo of that..

Yes, but not that old. Oldsmobile dealership (a small one) about 1/2 mile from my house. When they quit making Olds' GM let the dealer take over a floundering Pontiac/GMC dealership in town (used to be Admiral Pontiac back when I was in high school). GM shut them down withint the last year...they were cooking the books and late on payments to GM for inventory.

Crazy Ray's old business location in Philly (where he sandblasted my funny car frame for me) at one time was a Hudson dealership. He showed me where the pits were that the mechanics stood in while working on the cars overhead (no lifts in those days). They were filled in with concrete.

We also have a dealer that is still in biz thats been around for about 40 years in the original buildings. Two seperate structures right next door to each other. One was an Olds dealer and the other was a Buick/Lincoln dealer. We know what happened to Olds but since sales were bad, GM pulled the pug on the Buick ticket (went down the street to a new more modern store) and the same most recently with the Lincoln ticket. Now the same owner just sells a bunch of high priced used cars (junks). When you talk with him about his high prices and inventory thats been out there for a long time he'll say "Ive been in the biz 60 years. Dont tell me how to run my store". Looks like the big three allready did that.

yep there's several in this area.

the hudson dealer my dad worked in bldg's still there.

the pontiac buick gmc bldg i worked at is still there but not a dealership. it was built in '47.

the ford dealer [ defunct] is still standing but not for long. i should get a few pics of it.

the nash and first dodge dealer is still standing and is now a powdercoating shop.

the first pontiac dealer's building is now the chamber of commerce in portland, the second is a appliance retailer, the 3rd is where i worked.

the local chevy dealer is still in business, it's been there [or part of it] since the late 40's / early 50's.

mike

The old dealerships are sometimes really neat facilities !

What makes my jaw drop these days is what's going on with the brand new dealerships they're building. Multi-million dollar properties with dozens and dozens of service bays, multiple levels, totally pimped out.
I work near a new lexus dealership owned by an ex-Seattle Seahawk, I'm shocked at how big it is, it's freakin' huge ! Can there be that many lexus owners or lexus prospects, holy cow!

Paul,

Miller-Krueger Dodge (recently changed to Liberty Dodge) in Libertyville is in their original buildings; one's a showroom, the other is parts/shop. MKD is on Milwaukee Av., just north of 176 on the west side of the road, just north of the BP Station.

Guessing they won't be there long as Liberty has a huge combo dealership on the east end of Libertyville, on Rt. 176 by the Des Plaines River. Plus that just south of downtown Libertyville property, I'm sure, is quite desirable.

In Grayslake, on Rt. 120, just west of Grayslake Feed Sales, stands Rockenbach Chevys original dealership. The building was built in the early-mid 30s. It's now a floral shop, but if you look at the wrought iron fencing in front, you'll notice the bowtie logos in the center of each fence panel. They were there up 'til 5-6 years ago, at which time they moved to the big dealership on Rt. 120 east of town.

And in your hometown, on the southeast corner of Rts. 120 and 31, is the building that housed the Pontiac dealer there. It's now a carpet store. Know where I'm talking about?

The Old Building where my Brother bought his 1977 Trans Am is now a Truck Shop for the Diesel Trucks our Company uses....I'll see if I can get a few pictures of it and the old name of the Dealership?

The other GM/Chevy Dealership in town is now a storage/parking building for our local Police Dept.!

Our old Chrysler Dealership Building is now a storage building and shop for another Trucking Firm in town.Heck the Owner even stored a 4-door Pontiac in it for a while,you could drive by the main road and see his 1960's? model Pontiac siting on the the old Show Room floor.

Theres a building just a few miles from my house that is still there. It was built in 1911 and was a Chevrolet dealer back then called Blaisdell Automobile Company. it looks almost identical today as it did then. I have seen some photos of it when it was new. They had 8 dealerships by 1922 in this area. From Chevrolet,Hudson and Dodge. These towns were and still are very small today. The building was still used as a dealership until around 2000. It ended as a Ford dealer no wonder they closed LOL.

The Pontiac Dealership where I bought my car is still there, still a Pontiac Dealership. The service bay, parts department, and the body shop are the same but the front showroom and sales offices have expanded and remodeled.

Tom V.

the pontiac dealership that my mom bought her 67 gto new at is still up but its now a laudrey mat

The Chrysler/ Jeep dealer I work at was once used to build airplanes in WW1. By todays standards it's a dump.IMO

Most of the dealerships back in my hometowm area are still there.

Pontiac dealer where my Dad bought all his cars, still there. Expanded a little but the old building is there.

Chevy/Olds where I worked in the next town, still there. Looks a little different but it's there.

Ford dealer, still there. Not much change to it.

Buick dealer is gone. Now it's a CARpet and rug store.

Chevy dealer in my hometown, my buddy's brother bought it. He made it a Goodyear dealership with full service bays. Helped him get it ready for his Grand Opening. I get chills (for lack of a better word) every time I walk in the place. All of my buddies are Chevy nuts. A lot of fast cars came out of there. Plus the parts they sold that went in to those fast cars.

Ford dealer down the river a bit is gone.

I forgot about Rochenbach. I pass that every day!!

And I had no idea that the carpet store your talking about used to be a Pontiac store. Very cool. I always thought it might have been some sort of car building. I love learning history about my hometown!!

Do you remember where L'Ville Toyota used to be on Milwaukee Ave?? I think its a Napa now. As a matter of fact, the building I work in used to be Anthony Pontiac. They moved to Gurnee about 5 years ago and I believe the building was built in the 60's. How many GTO's were sold here??

Mine was ordered Huber Pontiac in Springfield which is gone. I don't know what is at that location. However, the car was shipped directly from the factory to Couri Pontiac in Maine which is also gone. Google Earth shows what appears to be an old building at the address now. Talman Pontiac, where I took it for warrentee work in '69 is also gone. The building is a riceburner dealership now.

I bought our '86 Buick Century there.

Old Blue- The dealer you mentioned with Buick/Lincoln dealerships side by sde would not happen to be John Mitchell would it? My late wife was office manager at the Lincoln/Mercury store and my daughter worked in the office of the Olds/Buick/GMC Store during the 1980's. Very interesting to learn what is going on up there now.

Tom

Yep it sure is Tom. He lost all of his new car tickets. I tried running a few of his cars through my auctions, but the prices were way to high. None of them sold. Lincoln went to Buss Ford and Buick/GMC went to Gary Lang.

He just sold the old L/M building and I heard that a carpet store is moving in. He still has the Olds/Buick/GMC building with the names still on the front. All he sells now is used cars and they have all been there for quite a while. As a matter of fact the empty lot next to that store was sold as well and the library on the other side will be doubling the space and building on it.

Yeah, but it's APS, not NAPA. There was a lot on the east side of Milwaukee, across from L'ville Toyota, can't remember if it was used cars or a Nissan store, maybe v-dubs.

If you go north on Milwaukee, kitty corner to the Liberty Theatre, at a site now under construction, was were Bernard (now Libertyville) Chevy was located. They were there until 1968, at which time they moved to the current location south of downtown Libertyville. My Dad was one of the first 'new' customers at the new store; he ordered a '68 Chevy Impala sport sedan (four-door hardtop), 327, T-400, white with a black interior.

And at the site of the closed Shell station at the corner of 176 and Milwaukee, was Gustafson Motors, Libertyville's Pontiac dealer until a fire in 1967. The dealership reopened as Talman Pontiac, now Pauly Honda.

Here's a pic from the old days.....

http://www.northshoreline.com/cnsmline.jpg

The building is on the left side of the frame.

The old Olds dealership I used to work in in the late eighties was just leveled a few years back, it was there since 1917, they also used to sell Reo trucks. I found all the old sevice manuals in the basement one day along with alot of other neat stuff. Now theres a bank there.

Theres also an old Caddy/Buick building from the 50's, its a body shop now in downtown where I live.

A few miles away where I store my car for the winter is an old Buick dealership that went out of business in the early 60's, the upper portion is now a service station, parts store, TV store, and a dentist office, a friend of mine rents out the basement which is where they used to park the cars and the parts department.

Old car delaerships used to be cool. I recommend the book "American Car Dealerships" Great old pictures. Now the new cars are ugle for the most part and the dealerships are worse.

Thats very cool. I dont remember Pauly being a Pontiac store. Before my time I guess.

The first tow pics is the building that I talked about in the first post in this thread. I didnt realize it use to be an old Napa store. They must have moved a coupleo f years ago as they now have a new building down the street.

The second is what used to be a Pontaic store that Ken (goathead68) talked about in his first post in this thread. Both buildings are pretty run down as you can see.

Here's a shot of an old Pontiac dealership located in SW Minnesota. The dealer is still in town, but at a different location.

http://orbitorange.net/images/ponchodealershipmn.jpg

The pic above was taken a few years ago. And yes, the sign is still there. Owner won't part with it, however.

There isn't a lot of old buildings and stuff here in Az but, I have found this one. It is/was a chebby dealership in St Johns, Az started in 1924. It was used as a dealership until a few years back. It is now available for sale along with the corner gas station.

Steve Barcak www.pontiacheaven.org
"Real Pontiacs only....no corporate nonsense!"

theres are all interesing storeys

Old Car Dealership Buildings
 

I own a repair shop which was, among a lot of other things during it's lifetime, a Dodge dealership in the late 40's and 50's.

When I first bought the place 30 years ago, the right side still had the old style pit with an alignment rack. One bay on the left side of the building still had signs designating it as the "Wash" bay!
The ceiling in there was only about 10' with a flat roof.

I have a few photos of the building which also had gas pumps.
I'll try to post them next week

love to see em

Here is an old Furd dealership in Watertown Wi. now a tire shop. It was quite the step up for the tire shop. It works well for them.
http://www.explorewisconsin.com/Tire...-RIFIKBLDG.jpg

The parts store i work in now is located in an old international truck dealership. A friend of mine has a repair shop that was the first Pontiac dealership on Long Island located in St James built in the 20's

You guys are making me home sick talking about Rockenbach and all the dealers around Grayslake, Libertyville etc.....I lived behind the old Rachenbach in the Grayslake apartments for a couple years.

Here in AZ, Darner Chrysler is on Main St. That is the new car dealership in the Movie "Used Cars". I believe the building used for "New Deal Used Cars" is just down the street. It is empty now. I'll see if I can get some shots.

An electrical distributer I used to work for in Louisiana was a Chevy dealership in the 40's, 50's and 60's. There were delaminated windshields in the attic for '59ish style GM cars, really cool but useless now. Nothing else remained. The service bays were used for material racks and the showroom was the assembly area.

There you go Steve, Cool start for the Pontiac Heaven Museum.

What? Nobody remembers this little dealership that was at 400 N Main in Royal Oak Michigan?

Formerly Royal Pontiac, it has been Jim Fresard Pontiac for many many years now. The building has been remodeled and I don't think there is any part that is recongizable from the old building.

K

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...O/100_3407.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...O/100_3408.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...O/100_3409.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...O/100_3410.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...O/100_3411.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...O/100_3412.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...O/100_3413.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...O/100_3414.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...O/100_3415.jpg

hey, i recognise that bldg! we used to travel thru that town during our fishing vactions!

mike

:bump2:

Just bumping this back up, cause it's a cool thread...

K

Agree. Just wish there were more added.

http://www.brownautomotive.com/ hit the ABOUT US link. We are the OLDEST family owned dealership in the country.

Very cool.

Thanks for posting!

K

Same Robert Brown that entered the bussiness just after WWII still serves as Pres?? Thats a long time!!!

There are quite a few around here.A chev.-Jeep dealership less than 1/2 mile from here was opened in the 20s,I think 1923.Its still pretty much the same except they quit selling Jeep 2yrs.ago.The showroom can only hold about 2 cars.Up until about 5yrs.ago the outside remained unchanged then GM made them 'update'the front.Ugly.They have a 53-4?Vette that never sold,a 62 Imp.,23 Chev.,pace car Vette.The 'truck lot' is right down the road.They opened it in the early 60s as a Gulf station and used car lot.They pumped gas 24 hrs.I worked there in the early 80s now its just the new-used truck lot,no gas.Same family since day one.About 1/2 mile from here on the highway is a Pontiac/Buick dealership that closed up in the 90s.Its been given a face-lift and is now a parts recycling business.I remember going there with my parents and going for a test drive in a new 74 GTO,red/white int.,4-speed.One mile from here is a Pont/Buick/GMC dealer,also sold Olds too.Opened around 66 as a Plymouth dealer.Still same family owned.3 miles away is the building I work in.Built in 1913 for the school basketball team and town rec center it was an Auburn/Cord dealership in the 30s.It also housed the towns first firetruck in an addition built on in the 20s.It is now a nationally known pottery company.Up the street from there it my late Grandfathers restored Gulf station.It was built in the teens by my Greatgrandfather as a Gulf station along Main st.He sold new Fords from there in the 30s-40s.Long story short,it is back in the family and restored close to how it looked in its day.I have more but Ive taken up enough room so Ill shut up...for now.Ill try to post pics but I never seem to be able to get them to upload.

arena olds/pontiac, route 30 hammonton, n.j. been there as long as i can remember. sold farmall tractors there too. not remodeled, still open. a gto and a solstice out front last time i drove by.

IT is actually his son that is running the dealership now. Robert Jr.

I was in Auburn Hills yesterday and snapped a few pics:

This is Auburn Pontiac, formerly Packer Pontiac. Packer moved to this location in the early 70's and changed the name either at that same time or shortly thereafter.

The former location was at Livernois and 7 mile. I'll see if I can get a picture from down there the next time I'm in the area:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ilities025.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ilities026.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ilities027.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ilities029.jpg

Like Steve B. said, not many buildings of any kind more than 50yrs old in the Phoenix area, but this thread sure brings back the memories of growing up as a "country boy" in Ohio.

My first summer time job was at a Chrysler/Dodge dealer in Geauga County at the intersection of routes 44 and 322 in rural northeast Ohio. It was called Crossroads Auto or Junction Auto or something like that. Wow the memory has faded some since 1978!

At that time I had the impression that it and the gas station kitty-corner were the oldest businesses in the area. Hmm I wonder what it looks like today or if it is still even there... Hopefully the cookie-cutter housing developments and strip malls have not taken over the area like they seem to be doing all over AZ.

Yes, most of ours are old here in Bristol. We have alot of dealers in the metro area, but I will only refer to the ones in the Bristol area. The local Pontiac-Buick dealer has been there since at least the 60s... maybe longer. I know thats where my old 1972 Buick Electra was bought new in April of 1972. The Oldsmobile dealer is still standing, but its obviously not Olds now... they also sold Volkswagons and now its a VW only dealership. Our Chevy-Cadillac dealership has also been there for years, but the Chevy dealer got a new building about 15 years ago, next to the Cadillac dealer. The local Ford dealership has moved many times across town. The OLD Ford dealership building became a Toyota dealer in about 1999 and the old Toyota building was torn down years ago, which ironically is still a vacant lot that is for sale. The OLD Volvo is now a auto auction building and Volvo dealership was bought by the guy that owns our Ford dealership and moved in the "2nd" Ford dealer building (which was the Nissan dealer in the 70s-80s), then they moved across the street making it the third move of the Ford dealership in 10 years! The "Dodge-Chrysler-Lincoln-Mercury-Jeep" dealer building is old as well. The Kia dealer merged in with the Mitsubishi dealer.... also a old building, but not too old... built in the 80s perhaps? The Honda dealer is fairly old, but received that nation-wide update a couple of years ago... the Nissan dealership is about as old, but still looks "80'ish". It was shared with Mazda, but very recently the Mazda branch got a new state of the art building... very futuristic looking. Suzuki building is also fairly new. The last four are on the same lot, but different buildings... the same man owns Honda-Mazda-Nissan-Suzuki-Cadillac-Chevrolet-Isuzu dealerships. Chevy-Cadillac are across town. The GMC dealer is quite old and is in a part of town all by itself.

Wow, did I just type all of that? :D

I just posted this on a different thread, but it is appropriate here, too.

Bob Longpre Pontiac in Monrovia, CA.

Thanks to JohnV for finding this photo.

K

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...01_resized.jpg

Keith, that picture almost looks fake....Its too perfect.

It is actually a publicity shot for those two "custom" cars sitting out front - so - who knows? Perhaps it was "enhanced"...

K

The attached is from UPC - WU2, from another thread.

His notes:

From Brodhead, WI. About 25 miles west of J-ville.

The first shot was in the fall of 1975 at Olin & Ayres Buick/Pontiac, founded in 1934.
Eventually Ayres bought out Olin, and picked up a Chevrolet dealership, and then built a new facility on the edge of town. Ayres just sold this week to some big conglomerate. The end of a 75-year family dealership.

Then:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...0&d=1226979361

Now:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...2&d=1227021569

This building is about a mile away from my house, just south of downtown Minneapolis. It was a Chevy dealership back in the 1920s and 1930s (it may have been the first one in town, although I can't say that for sure.) This part of town was where all the dealerships were located back then, nowadays it's pretty rundown as you can see. Note the Chevy bowtie in the building facade.