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.