Photos of Vintage Auto Dealerships, Repair Shops, and Gas Stations

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I don't know where this was. Note early T-Bird sitting in the bumper high water.

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Corner of Geddes and Fayette St in Syracuse, NY

Building in the background was (at the time) the Porter Cable plant.

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Selling cars out of the same building now.

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A smalll, great American auto industry story.

source: From Dorris Motor Co. to Biotech Startups, A Building's History of Entrepreneurship - NextSTL

George Dorris, founder of Dorris Motor Car, built in 1906, 50.000 square feet, and located at 4059 Forest Park Avenue, St Louis. The car company went out of business in 1926, and then Dorris went into industrial equipment and the family became a St. Louis fixture for decades.

The building became Brauer Brothers Shoe Company (also made gun holsters) for a few decades, then sat vacant many more now has new lfe with Washington University et.al

Dorrris' first car, called the "St. Louis", had a patented engine/transmission in a single unit, and was the first to use float-fed carburetors of the type that dominated the next 80 years of the car biz.


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I didnt know at this time, St. Louis was the FOURTH largest US city, and they had over 200 car companies 100 years ago. Broken record ... the coming of the automobile, and associated products, methods, economies, etc., ... one of the greatest industrial features in human history.

This building is still there. Notice its not a reinforced concrete structure .. in fact its the style of building the Detroit car companies moved away from .. leading to production advantages necessary to compete.

Looking good though at nearly 120 yeas old and registered historic structure. Now housing an innovation center for startups, it's going into its second century in a big way.

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