October 1959. Seattle, WA
Photos of Vintage Auto Dealerships, Repair Shops, and Gas Stations
- Thread starter ayilar
- Start date
Knocked down Ford Model T, shipped in a crate to dealer.
67newport
Old Man with a Hat
From the 1963 Bond movie "Goldfinger"
This address doesn't seem to exist anymore.
I thought this was an interesting historical picture.
The Detroit Automobile Company was Henry Ford's first try at manufacturing in 1899. It was renamed when it was reorganized in 1901 to the Henry Ford Company. It became (ready for this?) Cadillac when Henry Leyland bought it after Henry Ford left in 1902. GM bought Cadillac in 1909 and then Henry Leland left in 1917 and went on to start the Lincoln Motor Company (BTW Leyland was 74 years old) in 1917. Ford bought Lincoln in 1922 and Leyland resigned later that year.
I wonder how the car sales did with the tough mutt standing there?
This building is (was) in the heart of Detroit.
I don't know IF there were TWO former Cadillac Plants at Amsterdam at Cass Area, or just the one right above is that I know for a fact is still standing.
ASIDE: Last time, then I am getting off this horse.
If one has ANY doubt what the Detroit (and even across the river in Windsor Canada) area meant to the emergence of NOT JUST the World's auto industry, companies merged, folded, in other industries that still exist BECAUSE of the auto industry, its bittersweet to see these architectural "fossils" of the buildings they once occupied.
IN 1905 there were over 500 CAR companies (x3 when you include suppliers)in the US alone, yet a scant decade later, only about 10 companies were making 98% of ALL the cars in the US. Those thousands of companies? Their remaining buildings are everywhere
Within a radius of 10 miles around this former Cadillac Plant, both in fancy deco buildings and architecturally non-descript renovated and dilapidated, barely standing buildings, there are HUNDREDS of structures .. this is NOT counting Windsor, OR the Detroit suburbs.
Its really fascinating.
It really is.... Some of my favorite reading is automotive and other industrial history. One thing that fascinates me is the ties between the manufacturers...
Rabbit hole time. Not too deep tthough,
In graduate school (actually after I graduated and went into the car industry), I did a project with a former business school professor on the auto "body builders" -- the Briggs Corp, Fisher Body, and the one .. Murray (ever hear of them ? .. once the THIRD largest body builder in USA after Fisher & Briggs) .. that ultimately became Household Finance, now still a big part of global financial services behemoth HSBC.
SO, why the body builder segment of the value stream. Car bodies used to be made by companies OTHER than the OEM branded car maker. Why did GM acquire Fisher Brothers body business, or Chrysler buy Briggs? What made them (carmakers) vertically integrate into bodies? Why didn't OEM carmakers they go into/stay in tire-making, or glass, or steel?
Anyway, it was a wonky, nerdy, academic, economic story, but hell it could have been a good Hollywood Movie (ala Tucker) by the time we finished researching the executive teams.
to your direct point, you follow the people -- Henry Ford, Henry Leland, Billy Durant (an early industry VC, formed General Motors, and almost added Ford to the GM constellation), Joseph Hudson (the department store guy, started a car company, whose other company is now Target Dept. Store), Clessie Cummins, Charles Nash, Ransom E. Olds, Walter P. Chrysler (who at one time was at GM as President of Buick), Charles Kettering (was an engineer at National Cash Register, when he and some of his buds founded Dayton [Ohio] Electronics Company (Delco Electronics) and went into the new auto industry), Rudolf Diesel, Carl Bosch, Albert Champion (of spark plug fame), Enzo Ferrari, Louis Chevrolet, David Buick, Edward Murphy (formed Oakland Motors, which later became Pontiac), Preston Tucker, William Carter (of carburetor fame), Roy Chapin, Henry Studebaker, the Firestone grandson-that married-Henry Ford's granddaughter, the Dodge Brothers... ON and ON, you can see how tangled it all got. Business and families and other strange bedfellows.
Even in the modern era - Bob Eaton from GM to Chrysler, Lee Iaccoca from Ford to Chrysler, Bob Lutz worked at all the big three, etc. there were executive intermixing.
THEN, add othe people you never heard of, plus add the bankers, and lawyers, and accountants, architects (Albert Kahn) -- one would be astounded by the TRUE stories of the auto-related guys/ gals, families, and industries.
One aside. The auto pioneers, their investors, people who owned real estate, etc. MANY got OBSCENELY RICH. It was a gold rush.
Putting everybody in America (née the WHOLE World) on wheels was a once-in-a lifetime event for some of these folks. I mean SO RICH they were figuratively using hundred dollar bills for TOILET PAPER.
Sadly, many had their lives and fortunes smashed to bits, cuz they were stupid, unlucky, or both. IT wasnt champaign and caviar for everybody.
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Chrysler Argentina in Buenos Aries. 1962
Raleigh, NC. 1948
Now
Now
Another from Raleigh
Interior pic. Looks like they sold a bit of everything.
Recent pic.
Interior pic. Looks like they sold a bit of everything.
Recent pic.
The buildings look so grand and vast compared to the street views. That lil gas station from 1946 was a real surprise in size looks.
