Car photos are from virtualparking.com and closely resemble the ’57 DeSoto I found that day.
What is it about the spooky, mysterious, and unknown that attracts us so? I’ve always been an explorer. But the places I like to explore are the kinds of places most people prefer to avoid. I have walked alone through the worst slums of Newark, New Jersey photographing the ruins before they were bulldozed into oblivion. I’ve been through old abandoned factories, doomed Victorian mansions, and numerous auto junkyards. And I like driving along obscure country back roads just to see what’s there. So naturally I’ve made some interesting discoveries over the years. If the Internet and Curbside Classic had existed in 1985, I would have posted this. So with the help of some photos I found online, I am telling you my little story 40 years later!
Sometime in the late 1970s I started getting enthused about cars of the ’50s. I would buy back issues of National Geographic at garage sales for 10 cents each, just to get the car ads. I would then take an X-acto knife, neatly cut out the ads, and mount them in an album. That’s when I first saw this. The headline seemed totally absurd, like a parody ad from MAD magazine. But they were serious! And the car itself–strikingly out of this world. This just fueled my passion for American cars from the 1950s-early ’60s period.
My car album.
Me (on the right) and my brother in his go-cart, 1985.
By 1985, I had my driver’s license and the keys to Mom’s old 1962 Mercury Comet. This opened up new and unlimited opportunities for exploration!
1962 Mercury Comet when I was driving it.
Blue H = Main Psychiatric Hospital building, dating from 1876. Red X = Where I found the 1957 DeSoto.
I was commuting from my house in Morris Plains to County College of Morris. I usually just went straight up Route 10, but sometimes I went the “back way” on Old Dover Road, through the creepy 19th century psychiatric hospital campus. Talk about spooky!
Some of the hospital buildings had bars on the windows. I asked my mom why, and she said “To keep the patients from escaping.” That bothered me on many levels.
On one side of the road was the hospital complex, and on the other side was a little house, deep in a ravine. That’s where I saw what I believed was a ’57 DeSoto, far below. One day I decided, I’m going to check it out.
I made my way down the long, winding dirt driveway. It reminded me of the scene in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World where Phil Silvers drives his ’47 Ford convertible down to that house in the desert (and he can’t get back out!)
The car parked next to the small quaint house looked much like this.
This is the approximate scene I was confronted with when I got down there. Wow! So this is what a ’57 DeSoto looks like in real life! Amazing.
This car is so big! And those fins are out of this world! Even more dramatic than the magazine ad I saw.
The owner opens the door to let me see inside. First time seeing the interior of one of these.
A little old lady emerged from the house. Me: “Hi…heh, heh. I saw your DeSoto from the road. Um, is it like, for sale?” “Yes it is,” she replied. “Fifteen hundred dollars.” “Really? Why would you sell a car like this?” “Because I’m getting a new Honda Civic!”
That answer floored me. Imagine going from driving this glorious, boat-sized, Forward Look DeSoto to a Honda Civic! What a change!
Back seat view. So much room! That expansive rear window!
Chrome roof bows I think are supposed to emulate the look of a convertible top. I like ’em!
A fighter pilot would feel right at home behind this dashboard!
I never got to see the engine, but I suppose it looked like this.
That was the end of our little encounter. I would have loved to have replaced the Comet with this DeSoto, but I didn’t have the resources (or the permission) to do it at the time. If I did, my $1,500 investment in her Sportsman hardtop would probably be worth $20,000+ today (at least)!
Sadly, the lady, the house, the DeSoto, and the creepy-yet-picturesque psychiatric hospital from the 19th century are all gone now.
Just down the road was this strange little building which I did take a picture of. In later years the roof caved in–not sure if the ten (?) sided structure still exists or not.
The Ezra & Catherine Lamoureux Dayton house located in nearby Bernardsville was built in 1876, the same year as the Greystone Hospital main building. It too is gone.
I’ve seen a lot of New Jersey’s “interesting and scenic old stuff” disappear within my lifetime. Whether it’s farms with old red barns, brick factories with arched windows, Victorian houses, or abandoned cars in the woods. Some people complain about it; most people don’t care. I can just say that I’m glad I got to see the things I saw before they vanished forever.
Further CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1957 DeSoto Firesweep–Curbside Service by Jason Shafer
Road Trip Classics: 1957 DeSotos – Still Riding in Chrysler’s Shadow by Ed Stembridge
I remember that very same ad which I probably saw in the very same way – in an old National Geographic magazine on a shelf in one of my grade school classrooms. My grandma’s 55 DeSoto looked so old-fashioned, but the 57 seemed so futuristic – how could they possibly have decided to stop making DeSotos?!?!
I have been taunted for nearly a year now – a 58 DeSoto sedan showed up in the parking lot in front of a warehouse building I drive past almost daily. At first I thought someone was occasionally driving the car in to work on nice days. And then it has not seemed to move. Now I fear for it, sitting out in all kinds of weather. It taunts me because I see it from an interstate highway from my truck, where I cannot take the detour and stop for photos. And it is a 30-minute one-way drive from home, so I have not made the effort to go hunting for photos on my own time. I hope somebody rescues it. But I’ll bet someone wants more than $1500 for it.
Hmmm, that ’58 sounds interesting! If you could somehow get over there and do a CC write-up on it, that would be great!
J P…. I’m sure you know the sad events leading to the death of the Delightful, Delovely DeSoto. But for others, DeSoto got squeezed by Dodge moving up market and Chrysler venturing down scale into DeSotos territory. Even DeSoto added the Firesweep ( a standard DeSoto with a front clip shared with Dodge). The 58 recession was a bad influence on sales of all automotive companies, starting the long painful downward descent to death of many storied Marques. On top of that, all Chrysler Corp cars were quickly assembled, resulting in quality and rust issues . At least DeSoto went out with FINS soaring high as the Grand Finale of Exners fabulous finned fantasies for Chrysler.
Spiffy interior! Classy ride.
Enjoyed seeing the photo of you and your brother. Which of you was best behaved?
We’re both bad, but in different ways. 😉
My folks got Nat Geo and saved them all, so I started cutting those ads out around 1961. I always liked the ’57 DeSoto cowboy ad that said something like “You sure have a spirited mount now pardner!”. They are all still in the files somewhere.
These ads and our next door neighbors silver ’60 Fireflite triggered my love for DeSotos and I’ve owned 2 ’58s and 1 ’59 DeSoto (a 2dr hardtop, a 4 dr hardtop (my favorite) and 1 ’59 4 dr sedan). Also 2 ’58 Chrysler 4 dr hardtops. I’ve posted pics before so won’t bore you all again. All sold, all to Sweden, where the lede photo was probably taken, as the Scandinavians love FL cars. The ’57/58 DeSotos remain my favorite US car ever.
They are Postwar optimism in steel.
My favorite US cars of all time, postwar optimism in steel.
My folks got Nat Geo starting around 1953 and saved them all on a long shelf in our basement clubroom. I started cutting out all the car ads around 1961 (still have them somewhere!) The DeSotos stood out, my favorite was the ’57 cowboy ad saying something like “you sure have a sprite mount now partner! Those great ads triggered a love to this day, and eventually lead to owning 2 ’58s and a ’59, all 3 now in Sweden where the lede photo was probably taken. I’ve posted the pics of mine before, one just the other day, so won’t bore you all with them again. These DeSotos were truly a work of art, pure rolling sculpture.
As a kid in the 1970s, our elderly neighbor gifted us with a giant stack of “Holiday” magazines from the 50’s, a treasure trove of vintage advertising. I loved the car ads, especially with illustrations, that always made the cars look longer and lower than in real life.
But some more practical brands, like AMC stuck to more realistic photos and illustrations without such exaggeration.
As for exploring our 19th century past, its a bittersweet pastime, seeing the once- beautiful and the derelict get wrecked. I guess NJ shares a trait with my hometown of Toronto….. nobody’s knocked down their glorious past with such vigor as Toronto.
I definitely agree about Toronto . . .
Toronto has lost any charms it had. Once, Toronto the Good, it’s become a crowded,dirty,wannabe International City. And not for the better.
Great story Stephen. I too went to CCM, graduated in ’77, started out driving my ’51 Dodge but coming from the other side of Morristown would drive up Sussex Turnpike. We used to pass Greystone all the time, had an aunt on top of Union hill, and I had a high school friend just on the opposite side of Hanover Ave. Was a spooky place. I put the Dodge away in 1975 and bought a ’68 Fury from Mikan Motors in Madison for $795 to make my drive easier (I drove it for 16 years). The Dodge still exists today, now in my backyard, still has the CCM parking permit on the bumper you can see in the picture.
Very interesting! Is that a recent photo? Is the Dodge still running and driving?
I actually recall seeing a ’51 Dodge like that in the office building parking lot on Route 10 & Johnson Road in Parsippany. This would have been around 1989 or ’90(?)
The oldest car I ever saw in the CCM parking lot was a red ’53 Chevy 2-door (driven by a girl, no less!) This would be in the mid ’80s.
I took that picture a year and a half ago when I hauled it to my house. Not running. It spent ’75 to ’97 in my grandmothers garage only about 2 miles from 10 and Johnson Rd. on the other side of 10. My dad had it towed to their house in ’97, I got it started and backed it into a shed where it suffered many indignities until 2023 when I pulled it out when we sold my parents house. It was freshly washed here and I have it well covered up since. Has not run since that day in ’97 and the motor is stuck. I poured stuff down the cylinders when I got it home, someday I’ll see if I can get it unstuck (we rebuilt the motor in my auto shop class at MHS in ’73). It’s still wet here, makes it look real shiny. I had it painted in ’74 at a body shop in Morristown for $75, lol. Interior is very moldy.
Wasn’t this car you saw back in ’89. I worked at a building between Johnson and Littleton back in ’79 and ’80 but I was driving my ’68 Fury, and occasionally my brand new ’80 Camaro Z28!
That’s funny a girl driving a 30+ year old Chevy in the ’80’s! I never saw a girl driving anything that old even in the early 70’s when I was at MHS!
Here’s a picture of it in the shed in 2023 as I was preparing to get it out.
A nice car if too flamboyant for me .
I miss Victorian houses so much .
They were everywhere until they weren’t anymore =8-( .
I too love exploring the road less taken, there are still some gems out there .
-Nate
Great story Stephen. I love how you recreated what you remembered.
I can tell you that the “strange little building” that you photographed is something called the Graystone Coal Gas House. It’s actually a type of structure called a “Gasholder house” that was built in the 19th century to house a device that generated “coal gas” (a common lighting fuel) from coal. I recall one in Northampton, MA (now rennovated into offices). The one at Graystone seems to have been put on the National Historic Register sometime in the early 2000s, and Morris County was paying for its upkeep at late as 2015 (from what I can find online). But it may well have fallen into total disrepair and either been demolished or left to fall as I cannot find any records of it after 2015. Here’s some info on gasholder houses:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasholder_house
Now, I wish I could figure out if the little old lady ever got her Honda. 🙂
Oh, I should note, more to your subject, back in the 60’s my aunt on Union hill had a ’56 DeSoto 2 dr. hardtop in pink and white, affectionately referred to as “slinky pink” among the family. In the mid sixties it was replaced with a ’59 Edsel Villager wagon. 2 or 3 years later replaced with a ’63 Impala. We never travelled that section of Old Dover Rd. back in the day, where you found the ’57 as indicated on the cool map. I’m sure I would have spotted it in my youth if we had, lol.
My brother in law was a hoarder, which led him to have a huge number of old magazines, like Popular Science and National Geographic. The car pictures were very impressive on Nat Geo’s excellent paper stock.
I would assume the Desoto was not a popular car in Canada. I have never seen one in person. I like the featured car better than the other Chrysler iterations as it is not quite so over the top. It seems buyers didn’t agree and Desoto was relegated to the history books soon after this car.
You got your license in 1985 and yet had a 62 Comet sitting at the house. Your mother used it still 23 years later? That in itself is amazing in so many ways. Pretty much a use and throw away car especially in snow country like New Jersey. So, I can’t recall if I saw anything about it, where did the Comet go?
I wrote about the Comet here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/car-of-a-lifetime-1962-mercury-comet-s-22/
Honda civic or De Soto isnt a hard choice, I owned a Civic I’ll just take the De Soto, love those crazy forward look Chryslers, unfortunately we only got what Canada sent CKD, Plodges with flathead six or very rare Belvederes with V8 not the entire range.