My mom and I both live within about 10 blocks of the places that we first called home. Dad, the latecomer, showed up in our neighborhood soon before he married Mom. That was over 50 years ago. My sister, the wild woman in the family, lives about 15 miles away from the rest of us, and is therefore labeled the pariah of the family. Just kidding. This all may sound like a boring way to go through life, but we can’t all drop a Breezeway roof on a Mercury. We can’t all be astronauts or devil-may-care draftsmen.
The Breezeway window was a risk: It’s neither racy nor traditional. It bucks the reborn fastback trend of the mid-1960s because it was really a product of the mid-1950s, originating (in production) on the 1957 Turnpike Cruiser. Still, Mercury went all out with a splashy advertising campaign upon its rerelease in 1963, but unfortunately, the Breezeway wasn’t a blockbuster and it was relegated to second-thought status almost immediately.
But I love the Breezeway window. By 1965, it was only available on four-door sedan models (no more two-doors, let alone hardtops as in 1963). Is it the sense of mid-sixties give-it-a-go whimsy that makes me so fond of this somewhat-out-of-proportion piece of automotive architecture?
Picture found on oldhousesforsale.com.
I don’t think so. Call it the draw of home; on one of my walking routes is a well-kept neighborhood that sprung up in the 1950s when so many families in Middle America were moving to more suburban-like settings. Mainly populated with smaller catalog houses that are still well-kept, it’s a fun place to look at mid-century architecture and street planning. Aside from being clean and quiet, some of these houses have a breezeway between the garage and the house proper: A breezeway is a little room with a few small windows, a room that would be a nice place to read a book as the crickets shake off their downy sleep and the sun sinks languidly into the west. A small glass of bourbon with one piece of ice could sit on a small mid-century end table beside a mid-century chair. My ’53 Buick could sit in the garage. Ah, what a dream.
Although a little house with a breezeway in my old neighborhood sounds really nice, we have way too much stuff to make it work, so a dream it will remain.
But a Mercury with a Breezeway roof doesn’t have to be a dream, as they pop up for sale regularly. This top-of-the-line 1965 Park Lane is not for sale as far as I know, but it’s a nice example of a car (and a roof) I’ve always liked. The ’65 Mercury was all-new, but the breezeway roof was adapted to the new body for a last run. It sold reasonably well, but no better than the other four-doors in Mercury’s various series.
I’m prone to daydreaming, so it may be no surprise that I’ve sat starry-eyed at the inward image of a Breezeway Mercury. I test drove a rusted ’64 when I was in my twenties, and the hook was set: a warm August night, all the windows down, the steady drone of a big old Ford 390 under the hood, the faint glow of a set of spectacular ’60s instruments, a vague bounce to the speedometer needle as we drive back home to the place I’ve always lived. Ah, what a dream.
Unless I buy a bigger garage at home, a dream it will remain. My Tetris trials of old car ownership in the city have been well documented here for a decade, but it’s important to be an optimist about things like this. I’ve done pretty well for myself within the scope of living one’s dreams, so there may be a Mercury in my future. Will it be a ’63, a ’64, or a ’65 (I don’t like the similar ’66 as well)?
I truly love them all, so I don’t know for now. What I do know is that the standard roof was the future for Mercury and everyone else, and the experiment with the Breezeway window was superseded by air conditioning and, most likely, conformity. The Breezeway looked a little weird and the public spoke. Anecdotes about exhaust being drawn through the open window under the right conditions probably didn’t help much, and that seems plausible given my experiences in the Dart wagon.
None of that pessimism could possibly affect MY dream, behind that clean dashboard, eating up the miles, my girl at my side, my glass of bourbon and a breezeway at home. In the old neighborhood.
There’s many neighborhoods in NOLA littered small houses as per the above house plans. Build and paid for via the GI Bill post WWII and Korean Conflict. As things got better or the number of kids grew, moved on to three bedroom, one and a half bath. What more could you ask for!!
As one who has defended the infinite virtues of Mercury ad nauseam in these pages over time, I agree; you need a Mercury. Maybe two, there’s no point in letting the first one get lonely.
One good thing about the Breezeway was it being available for quite a while, which really helps open up the variety. Plus, it is indeed unique. That white Monterey you have pictured looks like a ’65 Ford with a butt-job. Which it kinda, sorta is, I suppose.
The house schematic made me chuckle. My wife’s grandparents had ten kids and raised them in a two bedroom house about this size, if not smaller.
Wow…10 kids in a two-bedroom house? My parents turned the sunporch into an extra bedroom in our two-bedroom house when I was young, and there were only two of us kids. Then we moved down the street to a house twice the size when I was 12.
I like the concept of the Breezeway window – as someone who enjoys driving with the windows down, it’s a feature I’d likely use often. In a modern context, I see Toyota 4Runners with the tailgate glass lowered, and think how’d I’d definitely lower the glass if I owned one. However, the reverse-slant on Mercury’s window is quite an aesthetic turn-off to me. I’ll admit it’s neat and quirky on a 60-year-old car, but if I were around when these were new, I’m not sure I would have ordered one.
That said, this is a great example you’ve found here!
On the topic of houses, my wife and I both agree that a detached garage with a breezeway would be our ideal setup. But it seems that was never a terribly common feature. Maybe because the breezeway itself used up more footprint than developers (and owners) preferred? But I like it – to me the breezeway combines the best features of a detached garage (keeping the dirty stuff away from the house) and an attached garage (easily accessible in bad weather). However, since right now we have no garage at all, I’d welcome any covered parking, breezeway or no!
On some two toned 1965-66 Breezeways, the lower part of the C pillar under the horizontal chrome trim is painted the body color – unlike this one. Not sure which is correct, or which I think looks the best. It could be that the 1965s had the lower part painted the top color and the 1966 had the lower top part painted the body color? I have not looked in my original literature to check.
I too have always loved the looks of the breezeway Mercurys .
-Nate
In the 1960s my dad would cut grass, trim bushes, and plant flowers for the rich millionaires in their Victorian mansions a block or two away. Statue of a civil war union General stood proudly in their neighborhood.
Each mansion had a carriage house behind it (originally for horse and carriage stables) on each landscaped lovely grounds. Many owners left the antique wooden carraige doors open to see from a distance… wherein the old rich folks and families had their Cadillacs, Lincolns, Chryslers, Imperials and also Mercury and Oldsmobile stowed.
Breezeway Mercury was often in the driveway of one. Shiny black. Lovely car that the owner said “sit in it if you like, young man”. I did. Cool!
Twas a rich man’s car compared to dad’s used 55 Plymouth Savoy with vinyl floor mats and replacement seat covers.
Thumbs up on Breezeway article!
Thanks John!
A breezeway is a little room with a few small windows
Maybe where you live, but the standard definition is a fully open roofed area that connects the house to the garage, or between two buildings. Hence the “breeze”. I suppose some folks may have glassed them in because the breeze was too much?
Don’t forget the jalousie windows!
I think a lot of people walled them in to create three-season rooms…less breezy but also less freezing.
Around here, most breezeways were enclosed long ago, if not when new. Many breezeways were actually closed on three sides originally (and oddly still called a breezeway even though they had no breeze), but builders promoted how the space could be flexible, and could be converted into conditioned space when the purchaser was able to do so.
Here’s a period drawing of a ranch house with an original breezeway enclosed on three sides.
Oh, I’d need mine open on at least two sides; it needs to sit perpendicular to the garage to be my dream breezeway. 🙂
When I was growing up in Toronto in the 50s, I believe that the building code did not allow for a door opening directly from the garage into the house, hence the need for a breezeway between them. You can now have direct access, but there are many specific requirements for the door, including fire-rating, weatherstripping and automatic door closers.
Thanks, Paul – many folks had breezeways when I was growing up in Indiana and they were open air, exactly as you describe. Some did get glassed in later on.
My first car was a ’64 Mercury Monterey with the Breezeway window that I bought while in high school for $400. I loved that car and had it until I graduated from college. Cruising with the kick panel vents and the back window open gave a wonderful cooling breeze since it did not have A/C. I had found a salvage yard with a ’64 Park Lane and when I had some extra cash I would go buy interior parts to dress up my car. Great memories.
Nice car! There is something satisfying about upgrading a car the way you did.
Oh man, that’s very much like the one I test drove when I was younger – I love it!
This is the second article on here today that’s taken me back to my childhood. First the yellow Lincoln and now this Mercury. Our neighbors had a black one of these. As kids, we loved that power back window going up and down.
Lots of memories here, mostly about that little yellow house! The first ten years of my life were spent in a two bedroom house like the Acacia, except that ours also had an attached one car garage.It was a well built and designed little house with a small covered front porch, hardwood floors, and even a fireplace in the living room. There were five of us, my Folks, and my two brothers. It was okay with the three of us sharing a bedroom, young kids don’t have a lot of stuff taking up space in their lives. However an extra half bath would have been an unspeakable luxury!
Today, lots of young people like the idea of a tiny house, probably because they never grew up in one!
The Breezeway was one of those ideas that were meant to be functional, not sexy. I remember seeing old canted headlight Lincoln convertibles on used car lots as a kid with the foldaway version. Interesting but not particularly attractive.
It reminds me of the GM flat top hardtop sedans, another practical design that has only grown on me in the last few years. I still like to drive with the windows down. I suppose the Breezeway was okay as long as the car was moving and the air was flowing.
Ive seen a couple of these they land as used imports, Ford UK sent us the styling package new on much smaller platforms as the Anglia 105E and Consul 315 neither had the roll down back window.
I’m not sure if it’s cute or if it’s so ugly it’s cute. I kind of like it, although I’m not sure it translates well to the smaller body.
I think the design reason for these British Fords and the Citroën Ami 6 to have a reverse rake window was to have good rear seat headroom while allowing a large trunk lid for easy access to luggage. You can see that the rear trunk lid goes almost up to the rear window, unlike the Mercury where there is a wide fixed panel between the window and the trunk lid.
Stationed in VietNam era Virginia, a buddy of mine left me his ’65 Breezeway to sell when his shipped out to Germany. I drove it license and insurance free for a month…
One night I had a Navy buddy drive us to D.C., and we got pulled over doing 95 on I 95 @ 3:00 AM. Trooper took us to a judge in a tiny JP’s building for arraignment. Fondest memory I have is my buddy blowing cigar smoke in the judges face, saying “You can’t arrest me, I’m in the Navy!! They let us go and never even asked for insurance or ID proof.
Also remember the Breezeway was a great car to for road tripping on weed…
Ha ha, there’s a lot to unpack here.
One house on the street I grew up on was a rental. Various cars went by over the years, just one was memorable.
Very likely a ’65 Breezeway. Exotic on our GM centric block, neighborhood and ZIP code for that matter.
Quite a color combo, sort of turquoise over a dark green blue color. Plenty of chrome that really popped on the dark palette.
Belonged to a military family that was passing through the air base. Immaculate 8 year old car.
Mercury dropped the four door hardtop Breezeway for 1965, I usually found that a bit disappointing. With the rarity of frameless glass today, I appreciate these Breezeway sedans much more!
I like the standard roof ’65 four-door hardtop, but I would love one with the Breezeway roof.
One of my favorite four-door hardtops is the ’64 Mercury (along with the similar Galaxie). They look great, too.
Houses – There are several neighborhoods not far from me with small homes of this vintage, and at least some feature breezeways. Jalousie windows seem to have been popular at the time. Like you, I like the idea. It also amazes me when I think of how families of four, five or more used to consider houses of that size normal. Now that’s a normal size – for a kitchen! (at least according to all those HGTV shows)
I remember these from when I was a kid and they were new/late model – I thought they were weird. That thought has stayed with me and I have always preferred my Mercuries with more conventional roofs. I wonder if the flashback to the roofs on the 1958-60 Continentals was a plus or minus to potential buyers. I am kind of amazed the Breezeway made it onto the 1965 models. I will admit that it was one feature that really differentiated Mercury from Ford.
The window did get passed around quite a bit. I prefer the Lincoln with the standard rear window, but that probably goes back to my wanting to buy a beat up ’60 Premiere when I was younger.
I remember when these cars came out – I thought they were retro 58 Continental: breezeway windows and taillights/rear styling. Later on – the dash of that white 65 reminds one of the 58 Continental dash. Lincoln-Mercury Division, indeed.
I was searching the comments to see whether anyone would make note that Merc’s styling quirk was not exclusive to Merc. J.P. Cavanaugh did. That rear window was also used on the ’58–’60 Continental models of Lincoln; aside from a larger array of available and standard creature-comforts, the Breezeway roof was really the one thing that distinguished the Continental from the other models Lincoln offered in those years. I think that setup is a matter of personal taste: Either you love it or you hate it. To me, it’s a nice nostalgic novelty to see, but little else.
Apparently, Lincoln wanted to hold onto some vestige of Breezeway with the total restyle that launched in M-Y ’61. For the convertible models, which from ’61 thru ’65 had clear-plastic film as their rear “windows,” engineers designed that panel with a zipper, allowing the driver to apply a breezeway effect if he/she so chose by merely unzipping the panel and rolling it up out of the way. Of course, this employed a degree of pre-travel labor, so I don’t know how many ‘vert owners of those years did that, especially considering that the entire ‘vert mechanism, save for that one detail, was fully automatic.
The Breezeway was an attempt by FMC to differentiate the big Mercury from the Ford, with dubious results. I’ll give FMC credit for the effort, but I believed it failed for two reasons: 1). It looked weird. Fastbacks were becoming all the rage and the fastback Galaxie introduced mid-1963 was a big hit. The 1965 fastback offerings from GM were some of the best selling cars of all time. This was the anti-fastback. 2). The touted “fresh air ventilation” benefits fell flat, as factory A/C was starting to take off around this time. Who needed this when you could have real cold comfort? Another questionable FMC decision involving Mercury in a long list of them throughout its existence.
Dropped my newspapers on the ground as a young paperboy when I saw my dad driving his used black on red 63 breezeway home for the first time. Years later at age 17, I learned how to drive in it with the help of my big brother, while James Brown blarred out on the radio.We loved it. Sweet memories.
I had several breezeway back windows on ’58 and ’60 Continental convertibles. You rarely needed air Conditioning with those cars. Floor vents open and the breezeway window down it was heaven. Such a shame they didn’t really catch on. Mercury did offer an opening back window with the conventional slant for a year or two about ’67, ’68, or ’69. Pretty rare these days.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a ’67 or later Breezeway – there can only be a handful left.
The last Breezeway: 1968
Not really the same appeal considering that the window only went down a few inches. It was probably equally effective but by then who would have ordered it?
Breezeway went from being a model in ’66 to an option in ’67-’68. For that reason, a breakout on take-rate is hard to find.
I’d have to imagine very low. The primary appeal of Breezeway, for me, is the quirky styling and can’t miss it gadget everyone behind your car can see.
I thought this option would be expensive, like a 50% down payment on real AC ($421.48), given the apparent complexity and structural differences. At $58.35 it was about the price of power vent windows – which were rarely ordered.
I think my pick of the breezeways would be a ’64, and definitely a 4 door hardtop.
I didn’t offhand remember that white ’65, but the two-tone Ford truck jumped out at me. I was parked about 6-7 cars farther back. Did you have one of your old cars there that day?
I drove my Skylark, but it was parked on a side street. We just stop in for an hour or two to see the cars and walk around when you’re all on one of your stops (usually Clare, sometimes Harrison).
Yes, even the smallest cars from beloved and stylish Mazda ie the Carol had a reverse-slant rear window on coupes and sedans in the Kei class, albeit rear engined. Cute as sin!
As MikeFromUpNorth said above, it makes a lot of sense on small cars for the sake of headroom. And it doesn’t hurt the looks because getting the proportions right on something that small is hard – so you might as well skew quirky.
That is a cute little car.
Speaking of similarly styled small cars, the most recent I believe was the 00/01 Toyota-manufactured Vi, sold under the WiLL brand and covered several times here at CC. The reverse canted window wasn’t operable but a canvas roof was offered.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule-will-vi-the-jdm-scion-precursor/
My dad had a 65 Mercury Montclair with the breezeway. No A.C. That Breezeway was a godsend to those in the back seat. In that nice shade of Teal. Nicest car he ever owned. 352 engine.
I remember growing up a little old lady down the street had one of those big Mercs with the drop window. She was tiny and very proper, white gloves, flowered hat and barely able to look over the wheel. It was that almost metallic pink with the white roof. It would creep out of her garage, the window would drop, and away she would go. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
You’re welcome!
Not quite reverse-slant, but certainly almost channeling it on some views… Mercury, at it again, in 1983 and in a ‘stylish’ personal car no less! Yikes.
You beat me to it, I was thinking the same thing about these AeroCougars.
What an idea for a mild custom: a Breezeway AeroCougar! Nah. 🙂
Yes!!!!
There is a 1964 park lane convertible that was in the 1964 NY world’s fair out there. The same one was bought by a man from a dealership and kept in the family to this day. It went through a rotisserie restore with all original parts. Today it looks like show room new. 1964 was also the last year of the well known tail fins.
It nice to see recognition to a family car, where 99% of the time it’s only on muscle cars.
I’m one of the lucky ones to own a 1964 Mercury Meteor 4door bonnet top beauty. She was painted in her birth place of Canada in the color of Skyline blue. In Canada they name their cars differently then the US brands. The word Mercury is not on the body only the word Meteor. Ford cancelled the cars, but canada ask if they could continue a little longer because they sold many of these. Ford agreed, but they wouldn’t make all the parts for them. So in these rare cars they had the Galaxy dash board instead. Which was instead of a 4 round gage cluster they now only had 2 round gages under the speedometer. The little side crank windows and the floor vents on the floor boards..to the under mount tissue holders and yes record players too.
But what was also unique was the ( scissor lift) Breezeway window was considered an option in Canada. Where in the US if you got the Bonnet top you got the Breezeway window. So my 1964 meteor came with a bonnet top but with a stationary window. Also to notice about these cars in 64, the sales brochure do not show side mirrors. If you wanted side mirrors? when you bought the car at the dealership they would install them and you chose from what they had in stock . That’s why there’s a lot of different side mirrors on these vehicles. Also keep in mind most of these cars did not have seat belts in the backseat, Mine is one of them. If you google 1964 Mercury Meteor you’ll most likely see my car. These cars were made for the family to travel the highways. Hugh trunks for luggage and golf bags, picnic baskets and beach chairs…they were family cars. Thanks for sharing this story, cars for the new highways for travelers. Added note. The very first freeway was called the ” Davidson Freeway” in Michigan and is still used today.
Thanks again.
You’re welcome! I have a picture of the World’s Fair ’64 from Dearborn’s Motor Muster 2013.