As I noted previously, I only know parts of Medina's history. A member who knows some of the car's history had said he'd get me in contact with a prior owner, but unfortunately he has not been on FCBO since Dec. 2019.
Given the dealer logo/emblem/tag screwed on her trunk lid, she was likely sold new by Smith Motor Co. in White Marsh, MD (less than an hour's drive from where she was built in Newark, DE).
I have gathered information over time about the Dodge dealership, but I am afraid that the sales records are long gone. Still, inspired by (i) a
post by
@1970FuryConv last weekend and an earlier
post by
@robio re: the Colorado dealership that sold their two Plymouths, as well as (ii) the contributions by
@PeugFra to dealership information,
I am posting this info in the hope that others may have more tidbits about the dealership and may be willing to share them.
Here are two pictures of the dealership that I found on
Pinterest and
Reddit. They were obviously taken within instants of one another. From the cars on the lot (1971 Dart, 1964 Bel Air, 1972 Charger), the fact that the trees are missing leaves, the orientation of the sun (the road runs SSW to NNE, so the sun must have been SW) and the shape of the shadows, my guess is that the photo was taken in the early afternoon sometime in mid-fall 1971, less than a year after Medina's SPD of November 16, 1970:
For years, this dealership was Smith Motor Co. The Baltimore Sun
has described it as "one of the oldest car dealerships in Baltimore County."
The stone building pictured above was located across the street from a more recent expansion, as shown in
this Baltimore County zoning document dating from March 1964 (listing the founder's son Kenneth G. Smith, the latter's wife Catherine R., and his brother
Marvin E. Smith and his wife Katherine L. as the owners of the land). The red arrow points to the area where the cars are parked in the two pictures above:
The first brother passed away in 1973, the second retired in 1978. The dealership was sold by a third generation of Smith owners and became Schaefer & Strohminger White Marsh Dodge
in 1981. Messrs. Schaefer and Strohminger had some of their Dodge dealership franchises
revoked in 2009. The White Marsh dealership closed in 2009 and
sat vacant for a few years until the An-Nur Foundation
moved into the Sales building. The Nur grocery store opened in the lower level of the service building. Lord's Collision
moved in May 2015 into the space for the service department. A fire destroyed the entire building
on January 24, 2016.
The original stone building still stands today at
10800 Old Philadelphia Road (corner of Cowenton Rd) in White Marsh, MD. However, with the bigger building now razed and the smaller building repurposed, I don't think there are records left. The company that has occupied the building for a number of years is an electrical services provider,
GSS.