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RIP Royal Pontiac
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At SR-71's suggestion at lunch time today I drove past the old Royal Pontiac location (400 N Main, in Royal Oak Michigan).
I wasn't expecting much change since last time but - alas - it's all gone. Nothing but busted up asphalt, debris and twisted bits of metal. I recall there was discussion about using that location for a K Mart or a retirement home but I don't know where that landed. K |
Man that sucks. Thanks for sharing
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It's too bad someone didn't buy the place and make it a museum.
Keith, maybe you were the last to get photos of a piece of Pontiac history. And yes it sucks that everything is gone. |
What a shame that it had to make way for "progress" :( Seems all too common these days.
Nice that you were able to get some pics with the Goat before it's demise though. |
I would be neat if you could find some remains of the building as a souvenir, like if there where any of those glass blocks lying around. Keep a small part of it alive...
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Pontiac sacred grounds
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Keith, your beautiful '65 almost makes the place come alive again. Thanks for sharing the pics.
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I agree, your 65 looks great with the background. It would of been cool getting a picture with a different year Goat coming out of each service bay door.
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Damn! :(
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It sucks about Royal but your 65 is awesome. Beautiful!
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WOW, I sure hope someone picked up that last 65 GTO from lube & oil before they demolished the building :-)
I hate change! But, all of us here on the forum still have our history, (in the Pontiac cars, parts and stories) that we can continue to share. |
The sun setting over the building is a particularly nice shot... and fitting. Thanks for sharing.
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:cry:
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Very sad.
Doubt they're putting up any new K marts, though. Kmart/Sears is in a death spiral of their own... |
Sad, drove right by there just a couple weeks ago and it was still intact.
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http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1308500606 |
Keith,
Thanks for sharing those pictures. Great shots .... Owning a car myself that came out of Ace Wilson's Dealership I always wonder how many cars from that dealership are still around as I am sure that the weather and racing them destroyed a lot of them.I also always wonder how many members from this site have a car come from that dealership? Might be worth a post?? |
It's funny to look at the old pictures and compare them to the ones Keith took. The last one is in front of the "new" showroom that stood on the grounds of the school that used to be beside the Royal dealership. The original showroom was long gone and actually was part of the building to the left and was almost right on the street. I always wondered why over the years that a Royal Pontiac party wasn't held on the old property during the Woodward Dream Cruise.
l |
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It would have been cool to park cars for pictures it in front of this same door and wall that was still there as of last month.
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That was Father's Day morning. Nobody else was up so me "and my dad" went for a little ride and took some pictures. Totally spontaneous. K |
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Hard to tell from a black and white photo but that might be our car. K |
I thought about that and would have sent it to you if I knew they were moving on it so fast. Reenacting the picture would have been cool.
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I did not know them, Only what I have read on py. If it helps I hate to see changes of the things I was around when I was a kid. SAD
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Thanks for sharing your pics, Keith - cool you got to do a flyby w/the '65.
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Thanks for sharing, Keith. You are keeping the history alive.
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Thank you Keith.
Time marches on....http://www.4smileys.com/smileys/sad-..._smiley_22.gif http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...1&d=1481308629 |
INDEED
[QUOTE=MikeNoun;5666820]Thank you Keith.
Time marches on....http://www.4smileys.com/smileys/sad-..._smiley_22.gif and on and on... http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p.../ROYAL%206.jpg Should have pulled some Bricks when you had the chance ;) |
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A couple of years ago it was mentioned that the Royal building days were numbered so while at the Woodward cruise we stopped by for some pictures with the TA (regrettable that our GTO wasn't there) before another piece of history was gone.
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The lesson I take from this and other experiences in life is that everything is temporary.. the world we know today, our friends, family, house, hobbies, loves, everything, its but a flash. You think people who lived 100 years ago, if they came back today, would recognize any of the things they loved during their lives? Unlikely. Its all gone... Just like everything we know and love will be gone in another 100 years.
Live life for all its worth now, there really is no tomorrow. |
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...except for this house. This house seems to have some supernatural ability to withstand the ravages of time. K |
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;) K |
Keith, is the '63 artwork by Eric White?
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RIP Royal Pontiac
Years ago(1991?) when the GTOAA convention was held in Atlanta, Jim Wangers provided a couple of bricks for the silent auction that he said were from the original Royal Pontiac Building(s). Not sure if these were the result of some remodeling, etc. but they apparently weren't the result of the buildings being demolished, since it looks like Keith's pics show that happening recently. Or maybe the buildings that were just demolished were not the original Royal buildings anyway. They look very different from the vintage photo(at least the showroom does) I don't know what changes the original buildings went through during their life time that might have produced the bricks Jim provided. Anyway, I made sure I wound up with one of these bricks and JW autographed it as "From the original Royal Pontiac", or words to that effect. Don't have it handy now to give the exact wording. Keitlh can you comment on this? Maybe I can have my brick Carbon 14 dated. Hope it wasn't just something Jim found in the hotel parking lot.
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Wareagle,
Says video is unavailable. |
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I didn't have any still photos of that car so I commissioned Eric to make a "hero card" based on old home movies and my recollection of the various features. K |
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The showroom was remodeled at some point but all of the outbuildings (the car wash, shop area and used car building) were all still recognizable. If Jim said it was from the original building I'd take his word for it. K |
Wareagle,
Car sounds and looks awesome!!! |
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I was honored to be invited to the inaugural MCACN event to participate in a display of "significant" Royal prepped cars. Bill Schultz was there with the RAV car and Tenney had the C&D '64, as well as a Beswick '68 and the Thom McAn giveaway car. I don't usually do indoor shows I don't have a lot of display material. I asked Bill and Tenney if they were going to do a big display and they said "naw - just bring the car". So I show up and Tenney has got Scott Tiemann polishing his car so much that there is white dust in the air; Bill brought a whole wall of newspaper clippings and magazine articles. I had nothing. I ran back to the hotel and typed up an 8.5"x11" white sheet of paper with some information on it, and I had the big GTO book for the authors to sign so I set that on the hood open to the right page. You can see Bill's "wall of fame" here: |
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... ... "oh - and a black '65". :mad: :D |
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Great story and pics Keith :)
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Found this while looking for something else; it's the thread from a couple years ago where the city of Royal Oak mentioned that something was going to happen with the property.
K http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=758992 |
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