Photos of Vintage Auto Dealerships, Repair Shops, and Gas Stations
- Thread starter ayilar
- Start date
1907 London charging station
67newport
Old Man with a Hat
This pic is more about the attendant.
1935, Jesse Owens, working at a gas station to help finance his studies at Ohio State University.
1935, Jesse Owens, working at a gas station to help finance his studies at Ohio State University.
1949 Fords floating down the Mississippi to Ford dealers.
I had no idea this happened!
I had no idea this happened!
Studebaker 1919
1914 Baker Electric being charged.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Oh how we have "progressed" in a 100 years. (said with disdain irony)1914 Baker Electric being charged.
I can't help but think that for 1914, before the electric starter, that was probably as close to a perfect car for someone that didn't drive far and couldn't do all the maintenance a gas car required in 1914.
Around 1915, Henry Ford had plans to build and sell electric cars. 50 to 100 mile range with Edison nickel-iron batteries. Price would have been on par with the gas powered Model T at $500-750. One problem was getting the batteries, but as it turned out, Ford decided against it because a lot of his rural customers still didn't have electricity and couldn't charge their cars.
Think about that for a minute... Henry Ford put the world on wheels with affordable, practical cars. Had he applied those efforts to an electric car, things could have been entirely different... Can't say better or worse, it would just be different.
Now we dont see too many going the other way. 100 year old building BACK in the auto business
Former International Harvester Regional HQ, built 1925, 72K sq. ft., 61 Beacon Street, Boston MA.
Now, turned in to Volvo Dealership, with plenty of room left over for ~50K sq. ft. of office space. It was other things in that century but rarely if ever vacant for long. Whole area is coming back.
Volvo dealer was nearby, bought and renovated it, put the dealership showroom/administration on the first two floors, kept their "old" dealership next door as their service/parts dept., rented out the upper two floors.
ASIDE. 100 years old, built to last 1,000 years with proper maintenance. Red brick, limestone, reinforced concrete, "mushroom" columns, four 1/2 ton elevator system, etc., ... indestructible.
These "fossils" of the auto-related businesses are STILL ALL over urban centers, principally upper midwest/NE --- East from Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, NYC, to Boston, then North from St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, etc., -- just WAITING to be turned into something else or razed to reclaim the land.
Some places with them -- and local economies strong enough - are doing just that in thriving reuse markets.
I know Detroit well ... they are trying, but its tough. Detroit's stock has/had been vacant/vandalized for decades, making the renovation with preservation pricey. Plus, there is are too many non-viable properties AROUND some of these stout, old, early 20th century buildings to constitute a "neighborhood" (urban sprawl).
Boston was NOT immune to urban decline .. they just didnt sink so far. Anybody who knows Boston (Beacon Street), this building is a stone's throw, so to speak, from Fenway Park, MIT, Harvard, and downtown Boston. The people came and never left -- for hundreds of years -- Plymouth Rock is only 40 miles away.
sources: Universal Provides Windows for Historic Renovation, Volvo Village, 61 N Beacon St. History | Boston Volvo Cars | Allston, MA, Historic Boston Building Transformed Into State-of-Art Auto Dealership
circa. 1930's
Today - Volvo Village Plus office space
Former International Harvester Regional HQ, built 1925, 72K sq. ft., 61 Beacon Street, Boston MA.
Now, turned in to Volvo Dealership, with plenty of room left over for ~50K sq. ft. of office space. It was other things in that century but rarely if ever vacant for long. Whole area is coming back.
Volvo dealer was nearby, bought and renovated it, put the dealership showroom/administration on the first two floors, kept their "old" dealership next door as their service/parts dept., rented out the upper two floors.
ASIDE. 100 years old, built to last 1,000 years with proper maintenance. Red brick, limestone, reinforced concrete, "mushroom" columns, four 1/2 ton elevator system, etc., ... indestructible.
These "fossils" of the auto-related businesses are STILL ALL over urban centers, principally upper midwest/NE --- East from Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, NYC, to Boston, then North from St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, etc., -- just WAITING to be turned into something else or razed to reclaim the land.
Some places with them -- and local economies strong enough - are doing just that in thriving reuse markets.
I know Detroit well ... they are trying, but its tough. Detroit's stock has/had been vacant/vandalized for decades, making the renovation with preservation pricey. Plus, there is are too many non-viable properties AROUND some of these stout, old, early 20th century buildings to constitute a "neighborhood" (urban sprawl).
Boston was NOT immune to urban decline .. they just didnt sink so far. Anybody who knows Boston (Beacon Street), this building is a stone's throw, so to speak, from Fenway Park, MIT, Harvard, and downtown Boston. The people came and never left -- for hundreds of years -- Plymouth Rock is only 40 miles away.
sources: Universal Provides Windows for Historic Renovation, Volvo Village, 61 N Beacon St. History | Boston Volvo Cars | Allston, MA, Historic Boston Building Transformed Into State-of-Art Auto Dealership
circa. 1930's
Today - Volvo Village Plus office space
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I'd never heard of this.
#1015, as an industry "veteran" only surprises me as I didn't know there were limestone caves near/under Kansas City (I'll nerd out on that geological fact in some other thread).
We (the industry, worldwide) have been storing unsold iron wherever we can -- less recently, a LOT the past three decades -- when demand gets really soft.
TANGENT ALERT
source: The Odd Life of Unsold Cars That End Up in Parking Graveyards
That's more the "old days" of "push" (production not matched to demand) supply chains (the plants -- assembly, stamping, glass, tire, steel, etc.) gotta run, we'll figure out later how to move excess inventory if we have to).
Ports, empty lots of ALL kinds near assy plants, and since Ford built Mavericks in KC .. underground limestone caves for all the Mavericks that weren't selling. Underground is great .. no "acid rain", no hailstorms, vandals, etc ruining perfectly good merchandise.
One may/may not be surprised what vast open spaces became "dealerships" -- unlikely for ordinary consumers but more for dealers to come and see the distressed merchandise the supply chain was choking on.
Port of Baltimore
UK
Italy (Rome)
We (the industry, worldwide) have been storing unsold iron wherever we can -- less recently, a LOT the past three decades -- when demand gets really soft.
TANGENT ALERT
source: The Odd Life of Unsold Cars That End Up in Parking Graveyards
That's more the "old days" of "push" (production not matched to demand) supply chains (the plants -- assembly, stamping, glass, tire, steel, etc.) gotta run, we'll figure out later how to move excess inventory if we have to).
Ports, empty lots of ALL kinds near assy plants, and since Ford built Mavericks in KC .. underground limestone caves for all the Mavericks that weren't selling. Underground is great .. no "acid rain", no hailstorms, vandals, etc ruining perfectly good merchandise.
One may/may not be surprised what vast open spaces became "dealerships" -- unlikely for ordinary consumers but more for dealers to come and see the distressed merchandise the supply chain was choking on.
Port of Baltimore
UK
Italy (Rome)
On the last cruise ship (out of Baltimore) we were on, before we left port, we watched them unloading cars from a large ship and driving them out to a lot. A large passenger van, loaded with drivers, would pull up into the ship and then right back out in a few minutes, followed by a line of new imports. I think they were Nissans. There were a bunch of those vans and it was a pretty steady stream of cars.
Justin Plant
Well-Known Member
Why not get them out of moth balls and on dealer lots today? Sell them as used or something. The local KIA dealer is the only place here that seems to have any new inventory. Unless you want a body in white work truck.
IOLA KID
Member
I plowed snow with a McCormick Deering 10 20 just like this back in the early 1970's. I was in high school. Our tractor had rear fenders, with a hand crank winch to raise and lower the blade.
