Curtis Perry found a couple of long-defunct dealerships in his many travels through the small towns of the West, including this former Packard store.
The sign looks to be in pristine condition still. They built Packards well!
And a Hillman dealer. This is pretty typical of so many small ’50s import shops.
That Packard sign looks too nice to be original! Hanging there for at least six decades. Repro? On the other hands the mounting hardware seems old enough to be genuine.
The Hillman sign is a good find and seems original with a couple of neon tubes falling off. I have forwarded these pictures to a friend who owns a Hillman Minx (and in fact is using it today with a classic caravan on tow).
I’m always astonished at how tiny these old dealerships were. I can’t imagine buying a high-end car like a Packard out of a little shack like this.
Really weird how the three poles on the right-hand side of the Hillman dealer are parallel while the ones on the left are tapered – and the windowpanes behind them are the same way.
Back in the ’50s and ’60s, big ticket item (car and house) transactions were often closed in shacks. Nice new houses in planned neighborhoods would have a shack or trailer on an empty lot nearby, where the deals were closed. It’s as if the product itself was the point of the thing, rather than the elaborate staging associated with it.
In the ’70s, there were many awesome high-ceiling swoopy Ford dealer showrooms, but then there was a Mustang II on the showroom floor.
Old dealerships could be small because people ordered new cars rather than the dealer having tons of inventory on hand. I would imagine that we may well see that trend come back, to some degree, as the world adapts to the new normal. The dealerships need garage space for repairs, and a forecourt for used car sales, but I don’t know if having a lot of inventory will continue to be the norm. It may well stay the norm, but it would seem to me that a leaner model would be easier on a lot of dealers.
In the postwar years, Packard had major problems with dealer recruitment and retention. Most of it was the result of uncompetitive product and pricing, some the stigma of ‘off-brand” independent carmaker that took hold then. The distributorship system from the pre-war ended in 1949, subsequent dealer relations deteriorated badly from there on.
Further, as Big Three makers sought to increase dealer representation, sales districts were encouraged to recruit from the more successful though likely disgruntled independent make dealers with promises of higher volume and greater profits.
Those are parts of the same building. Looks like the part with the Packard sign was in the middle of a resto-mod when they ran out of money. Maybe someone was thinking in terms of a museum?
Yes, they are on the same building — below is a Google StreetView link and image showing both signs. The building itself is in Cottage Grove, Oregon:
https://goo.gl/maps/CBSV7RAQmG6yb7YG6
That explains it – Cottage Grove is in the greater Eugene CC-metropolis.
Anyone else think the Federal Signs logo at the bottom of the Packard sign looks like the 1950s Pontiac logo?
Beautiful, intact artefacts from what might quite soon be an entire era of the car gone forever, our familiar big names and all.
That said, I’d keep a Packard sign forever. Even if one didn’t know cars, it just sounds like something classy.
Hillman Minx? An stodgy old dear, hardly capable of climbing a hill, or a man, or being boldly flirtatious come to that. I’d leave the sign for a true believer.
Sorry, Bryce.
The Packard dealership on South Auburn St, Grass Valley, CA, is now a flooring outlet: “Packard Discount Carpet-Vinyl”.
Wonderful—hard to believe those two signs have fared so well. They could only be porcelain enamel ? Thanks for the peek.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_porcelain_enamel
I bought both of my late-‘fifties SAAB 93s, in the later ‘sixties, from a lawn-mower mechanic who operated out of a Quonset hut in tiny Halifax, MA. He would gladly install a rebuilt motor—the three-cylinder two-stroke—after a careless owner (ahem) had blown the mill from a combination of too little oil and too much heat (hot day, forgot to install the “summer thermostat” or raise the radiator window shade) for, I think, $175. A friend and I did that once each on our three cars. Second time, he returned my car without tightening a radiator hose clamp. Stopped running on a summer evening on the Southeast Expressway. Owner of the proper SAAB dealer in Hanover stopped to help, with dressed-up family in car on way to evening in Boston. Insisted on towing my car off the freeway, with the helpless doofus standing by.
The nameless Halifax “dealer” later made a name for himself by accepting the company offer of passage to Trollhattan for a factory tour, then sloughing off and (reportedly) partying in town rather than attending the events.
Ah, youth. I loved those cars. Jay Leno has one . . .
This reminds me of the BMW motorcycle dealer i patronized in the early 90s, House of Triumph in Thornwood NY. For a start,Triumph had been out of the US for around a decade, and there was also a big Bultaco sign on the front of the rather small building, and a 1987 Matchless G80 in the showroom from a failed attempt to revive that defunct brand. They also did a lot with BSA and Norton as well as selling small numbers of BMWs out of a 1000 square foot building.
What a lovely Packard sign! If I had a place to mount one…
So what is a packers sign like this worth?