It’s the rainy season in Portland, and I desperately needed to get out of the house and take a walk. I decided to take my camera and hunt for some Curbside Classics in the Hawthorne neighborhood. It was a short walk, maybe 45 minutes. But time wise, I seemed to have been transported back to the sixties, or early seventies.
I spotted two early sixties Fords, including this 1961 Falcon, and a seventies Dodge that when shot in B&W kind bring me back to a simpler, quiet time. For a short while, the problems of the day disappeared. The past isn’t gone. It is still around, in little pockets of warped time. If you look around you can probably find a few where you live.
I’m pretty sure this is a 1960 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan. It looks like a base model, but it’s in amazing original condition for a 60 year old car that looks like it still gets regular use.
This Dodge(?) was parked across the street from the Galaxie. It’s just another old car that seems to live forever in the Northwest. I truly live in the land of plenty.
Despite reading (and writing for) this site for years, I am still constantly amazed that you can just go out and see random 50+ year old cars on the curbside in Portland (and Eugene).
I live in the land of rust (Ohio), and anymore even seeing cars from the ’90s is a pretty uncommon sighting. Seeing cars from the 80s and before pretty much never happens outside of a car show.
I really gotta get myself to the Pacific Northwest at some point…
The Pacific Northwest… “the land that rust forgot”.
That and all the way down to the Bay Area. Just need to watch out for those regions with a heavy pine tree population and needles which fall into the cowl and breed rust over the decades.
And not just pine needles, but cedar trees are arguably even worse. I bought a car that had sat under 2 cedar trees for 6 years, and those short needles infiltrated every nook and cranny on that poor car. The cowl did rust out first.
Agreed. I was out and about yesterday and happened upon a 2004 or so Buick Century and was about to whip out my phone to take some pics of it. Yes in Ontario, a 16 year old car is a Curbside Classic to me, which is quite pitiful. I stopped myself in my tracks, gave a moment’s observance to the rusty Buick and moved along. Nothing to see here.
Those two Ford’s are fantastic. The photos could be 50 or even 55 years old and the cars would still look good. The Dodge looks good as well, but it has had a rougher life than the Ford’s. You Northwesterner’s are blessed to live in the land of plenty. I grew up in Alaska, where at that time the climate plus the rough roads made for it to be unusual to see a 10 year old car still on the road. I now live in central Texas where the heat bakes them to death.
I believe the ’60 Ford is a Town sedan, which means a four door. The Club sedans were two doors.
Thanks for the photos.
I love the time-warp effect of the B & W, especially in the first shot of the Falcon where you can pretend it’s still the sixties – correct period house and the more modern autos don’t intrude.
I feel the same way. However, I noticed a plastic trash can. The second shot makes the time warp perfect.
Replacement windows and doors give away that this isn’t 50 years ago. Another tip off is what you don’t see. Not one house has a TV aerial on the roof. Most would have had one back then. Impressive pictures and the black and white creates a mood that color doesn’t.
Trash bins are something I never pay much attention to, but yeah that style of square, wheeled garbage can didn’t arrive until about 25 years ago. The oldest ones I can remember were round but still plastic; did these used to be metal? Probably, but I’ll need to start looking at the trash cans in old photos.
Wheeled trash bins are one of those things I can’t believe they didn’t think of until recently. Wheeled luggage too.
For comparison:
(Broad St., Newark NJ; early 1960s)
I may have kind of simulated the look of the 60’s with these photos, but one thing is for sure. We have a lot more people here now. You don’t see this kind of open space in a modern city anymore. This is the real deal.
Actually, this is the view now:
According to the billboard, a massive new development is planned.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7465801,-74.1703996,3a,48.8y,25.55h,88.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sD1Xl8phpLyuooNNp2ejK1w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Also this one:
(Higher trim level–Galaxie 4-door hardtop)
I love those shots of the Falcon in particular – what an honest and pretty design they were. Sure I know they had sluggish performance with the automatic, but the design really stands up even today. Is the rear suspension on this one elevated somewhat? It seems to have a forward rake.
The Dodge (or is it a Plymouth?) looks like a former cop car with the slotted dog dishes.
And the trim on the doors only.
Early Falcon rear springs were weak, sagged after a few years. Looks like this one was worth doing something about it.
The Falcon was a great design, which is probably why the 1st gen survived pretty much unchanged in Argentina from 1962-1991.
Although CCs are in Chicago I miss walking around Seattle where seeing multiple CCs was a daily event.
I have never before noticed that the “face” of the 1960 Ford sort of pleads with you to take it home. 🙂
It’s of course the second year with the convex grille which makes it look a little more assertive and less vacuumy. This Deluxe model also has the side trim, new for 1961. This means a nicer interior as well. Also the trim on the tail lights and window frames and full wheel covers (thank god no dog dishes on this one), all giving it a much less cheapskate look. Too bad no interior photos. Maybe another walk around the block is needed.
The DeLuxe model in 1960 included such luxuries as a cigarette lighter, rear seat arm rests and ash tray, and front door dome light switches. Living large for a few extra bucks!.
(Yeah, I just did a little research at oldcarbrochures.com.) To my surprise Ford did several Falcon-only brochures, including a station wagon-only one “Prepared especially for readers of Ford’s Buyer’s Digest”.
Although clearly designed to a low budget, the design of the first Falcon is IMO very well done and very modern for 1960.
Looking at the B&W photos it’s hard to believe these are now 60 year old cars and 100 year old houses.
As a car loving 4 or 5 yr. old I remember naming the makes of the cars as they drove down the street, while sitting on the front porch. We were also living in similar looking neighborhood, albeit in N.E. Ohio.
Reminiscences: Prowling the Dealerships of Pretoria for Brochures
1958! I was 14, my much wiser brother was 17. I collected car brochures and lapel badges, he collected girls, Girls!
South Africa was awash with funny German bubble cars, BMW Isetta, Heinkel, Goggomobile, Messerschmidt, Lloyd and Zundapp. Also, an assortment of British and European cars. I would later on own a Goggomobile.
The cars I liked were the large cars from the US, Buick, Chevrolet Pontiac, Ford, no Mercuries after 1950 or Lincolns. Chrysler products were De Soto, Dodge Plymouth and a few Chryslers.
The local newspaper “The Pretoria News” Had a feature about a brand new fully imported 1958 Cadillac Eldorado which would now be offered for sale in South Africa thru Oribi Motors, right here in Pretoria, there was a picture, it looked beautiful with its great fins. I had to have a brochure if any were available. For weeks I walked past Oribi Motors every Saturday and caste the scene. Oribi Motors also sold Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac.
The more mundane Chevrolet cars and commercials as well as the English Vauxhalls were sold by Alderson and Flitton, now long gone.
The big day arrived. The Beautiful blue Cadillac had arrived and next to it was a glass case with about 5 brochures. I opened the case and paged through a brochure, between each page was a sheet of fine tissue paper. The salesman was a big fat fellow who lit one cig. after the other, he told me to leave the brochures alone.
My brother, besides his success with girls had also started doing sleight of hand magic. I told him of my dilemma, he devised a plan.
We would go into the sales room together during a lull and he would distract the salesman with his world-famous magic, I would grab a brochure and run out of the showroom and turn left, he would also run at the same time run and turn right. This genius move would confuse the salesman and we would get away.
Our genius move did confuse the salesman, we got away and I was the toast of all the brochures chaps for years to come.
My very first car was a 1960 Ford. I was 13 and it didn’t run. The wheel openings were gone thanks to New England road salt. I painted “SUPERLEMON” down what was left of the rear quarters.
I had a ’61 Falcon in college that I got from a neighbor for $50; this was in the early ’80s, but still. Put about $150 into it and it was such a good car! My little blue four-door had three-on-the-tree and was so easy to work on. Wow do I miss that thing, especially when I think about working on my Volvo 850.
Always had a soft spot for the ’61 Falcon. This one has the optional bright trim that was not available in 1960; I initially thought it might be a Futura, but this trim was part of the appearance package. In 1960, that only got you the bright trim on the windows.
I prefer the concave grille version of these first gen Falcons, but I wouldn’t refuse either type.
I absolutely HATE the squared-off roofline they cribbed off the T-bird for later years. Completely ruins the flow of the lines.
In Australia that bright side trim was standard on the Falcon Deluxe right from the start.
My folks bought two new 1961 Falcons, a four-door with the deluxe trim and a two-door in standard trim. The deluxe also had a major upgrade in the interior. The later-in-the-model-year Futura was kind of a hybrid in terms of exterior trim. It had the chrome around the windows but not the deluxe’s side strip trim. Instead the Futura had three chrome spears on the rear fender – and the unique polka dot wheel covers.
These ’61s with the deluxe side trim were a short-lived phenomena, and not very common. Frankly, it was overkill; too busy. Which explains why the Futura ditched it.
That Fairlane, particularly that rear end, looks great.
Thanks for the walk!
The back of the 1960 Ford looks about five years older than the rest of the car.
I very rarely see any early Falcons that came here new, they didnt sell very well, both kinds sold here coming from Canada and Australia, collectors have scooped up the remaining cars and they are hidden away, UK and US Fords were more popular when they were new and those were assembled here, Falcon assembly kicked off in 66 from memory about the same time Ford UK misstepped with the MK4 Zephyr Zodiac range and made the Falcon family Ford of choice.
Great photos and writeup indeed, thank you for sharing. I love seeing the original license plates on the 1960 Ford Fairlane Club.
Love the pics! I’m thinking the Falcon has been upgraded to 14″ wheels/tires, as it seems to stand a bit taller than they did with standard 13″ wheels. Not to mention, it’s getting almost impossible to find smaller tires at a reasonable price today.
The Falcon has definitely been upgraded to 14” wheels as it’s wearing 1968 Fairlane wheel covers. That deluxe trim is tough to find in good condition. Sometime in the past, a former owner eliminated the lower sections on mine and filled in the holes. I have so far in five years not been able to find the pieces for the doors, so that I can put it back to its original state. I love the black and white photos, they do make it look more like days gone by. I’ve taken shots of my home with my various cars in the driveway but never did them in black and white. My sister commented that this one with the 67 Impala and 61 Falcon could almost be mistaken for being taken in the late 60’s
The ’60 Ford has an original set of Pacific Wonderland plates, introduced in 1959 to mark the centennial of Oregon statehood. Since it has a current registration sticker, those plates have likely been on the car its entire life, and it’s not registered as a classic car.
I bought an original set of Pacific Wonderland plates from a collector for my ’64 Impala when I moved to Oregon in 2003. They still have the ’64 registration sticker, which is allowed for classic car registration.
Oregon reissued the Pacific Wonderland plates for its 150th in 2009, and they’re still available for an extra fee. The Falcon has those, a nice period touch.
I realised some time ago that Oregon is a bit of a time-warp, car-wise, but there is currently a TV series featuring an elderly British TV star travelling down the west coast from Seattle. This week he visited Crater Lake – now I knew the sea-bed off the coast of Oregon was a bit iffy, but I never realised how volcanic the actual land was !
Thanks for the pictures. My father owned a 1960 Ford Fairlane two door sedan when I reached driving age. It had the mighty 223 CID six with the ever popular two speed Fordomatic. Actually it wasn’t a bad car for an inexperienced driver because it took a long time to get it to any thing approaching a dangerous speed. Nevertheless I managed to the kill the poor Ford a couple of months after getting my license. I was on my work one evening, listening to Steppenwolf on the AM radio, and was involved in an accident. Fortunately no one was hurt but the Fairlane was toast. We ended up buying a 1961 Ford for 75 dollars (same car underneath with a less strange body design) and having the engine and transmission from the 1960 installed into the 1961. I drove the ’61 Ford during my senior year in high school, it wasn’t much but at least I had wheels.