If a person finds a stocked pond, they are often wise to fish it for a while. Such is the case with the Facebook group Missouri’s Historic Highways. The photographs are from the Missouri State Archives and deserve to have widespread viewing.
So let’s go to Columbia, Missouri, circa 1965. Columbia is currently the fourth-largest and fastest growing city in the state with a population of 128,000 in 2018, up from 36,000 in 1960. These pictures were taken at two different locations; both are on Business Loop 70 at, as near as I can tell, College Avenue (Route 763) and Providence Road, both in the northern part of town.
This picture at Providence Road is fascinating. The stark contrast between the 1949 Ford and the white 1963 Chevrolet in front of it; the two Volkswagens; the little imported convertible beneath the word “Queen” in the Dairy Queen sign.
The field behind the convertible is now Hickman High School, the location I once found a 1974 Dodge Charger.
This picture is also at Providence Road, just a little further west from the intersection. Note the Corvair and yet another Volkswagen. In front of the Volkswagen is not a Dodge or Chrysler, but a DeSoto. The black car that appears to be jutting into the DeSoto is a Rambler.
There is an Oldsmobile in front of the DeSoto, but what is in front of the Oldsmobile? It appears to perhaps be another import although I’m not well versed enough to even speculate.
This picture, unlike the prior three, is east of Providence at College. College still has less traffic. The automotive findings are skimpy here with a 1957 Chevrolet wagon on the left and what appears to be a 1964 Chrysler trying to turn right at the stop sign.
How do these places look currently? This is Providence at Bus Loop 70 and I tried to recreate the first picture with the help of Google. This shot is from June 2018.
Fifty-odd years later, there is still a McDonalds at this location.
This is how Bus Loop 70 and College looks as of June 2018. The building on the left appears to have survived the half century since the first pictures were taken.
While a lot has changed in Columbia, it appears a nice amount has remained unchanged.
Nice! So much auto goodness there. The import convertible is a Triumph TR3, I see a 1960 Pontiac there, first car I ever rode in.
The unidentified sedan is perhaps a Simca Aronde? Missouri is pretty far from France.
You’re right about the Triumph. I take back what I said about the Healey 🙂
Agree on the Simca Aronde. Good eye! I have to give the owner credit for being brave enough to own one there and then.
These Simcas were not that uncommon during the import boom of the mid-late ’50s.
That is a TR-3 and if the pic was taken after Jun 1960 it might be me.
My guess at the sports car beneath the DQ sign is ah A-H 3000 or 100-6. In general, I feel like I’m seeing more foreign cars than I would have expected in Middle America in 1965. But then, Columbia is a college town, and if there were foreign cars anywhere in the Midwest, it would be in a college town.
Also, the ’49 Ford and the (I’m guessing) early 50s Chevrolet near it were pretty darn old cars by 1965. Again, being a college town, I suppose broke college students have always driven older cars.
I love this! Since I’ve been in Columbia many times, I recognize some of these locations. And since my wife’s family has lived in Boone County since before Missouri was a state, her family is full of anecdotes about Mid-Missouri’s past. Columbia was very much a small town then, and the general car culture of Mid-Missouri was a disdain for anything pretentious or ostentatious.
I’m surprised to see signs for I-70… I didn’t realize the Interstate was open there as far back as 1965, though I do now recall it being one of the earlier Interstates.
And I can’t help but thinking that at some point in the distant future, someone’s going to look at that last Google image and say “Is that little red car in the far parking lot one of those Australian-built Capris?”
RE: IH-70 In 1964 IH-40 between Little Rock and nashville was maybe 20% complete. By mide 1968 it was 100% complete. I’ll bet IH-70 was on a similar schedule.
While there has been some debate about the first interstate, the first awarding of an interstate building job was for I-70 in St. Charles, just west of St. Louis. Everybody else claiming otherwise is just jealous. 🙂
EDIT: This was in 1956.
The interstate system is aging rapidly; the Rocheport Bridge on the west edge of Boone County was built in 1960 and is in the early design stages of being replaced.
I’m glad everyone is liking this as I’ve got something similar scheduled every day through Monday of next week.
The first section of I-80 to open in Iowa was in 1958. During the years we lived there (1960-1965) it was rapidly being built out across the state. By the time we left in ’65, it was about 90% complete.
On the other hand, I-35 runs North-South through the center of the Iowa, and in the early seventies still ended about 20 miles of North of Ames and well short of the Minnesota border.
I don’t remember the exact date they completed it, but it was a year or two before I graduated high school in 1979.
“The stark contrast between the 1949 Ford and the white 1963 Chevrolet in front of it.”
Reminds me of this picture, taken Dec. 3rd, 1961: View from 410 Sheridan Avenue, Newark NJ. I’d provide a “now”, but I can’t find Sheridan Ave. on a map today.
Love then & now pics. Two corrections – in the second to last vintage pic the white car between the ‘55 De Soto & Simca is not an Olds it’s a ‘63 Buick Wildcat. That ‘49-‘51 Ford looks like an import behind the ‘62 (not ‘63) Chevy.
My favorite is the 64 Falcon in the first picture.
Yes, plus it appears to be a Sprint model per the fender emblem. I also like the Wildcat and ’62 Impala 2 door hardtop.
Very nice photos, Jason. I always like vintage street scene photos. That is why I mainly watch old movies and TV shows, just for the old cars and scenes of how life used to be. I could look at them all day.
Yes! I love the ’64-’65 Falcons, especially the two doors!
If you see a 1963 red Impala convertible in any of those pictures, it is me.
This reminds me so much of Iowa City at the time. And yes, college towns in the Midwest had plenty of imports, not just owned by students but the faculty as well. My neighborhood had substantial numbers of various imports as well.
The two guys across the street even owned a Lloyd.
Speaking of odd imports, here’s what I believe is an NSU Prinz:
https://cdm17229.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17229coll6/id/734/rec/101
That’s what it is. Everything from Abarth to Zundapp was imported during the 50s and early 60s.
One of my ex-co-workers owns a Prinz. His father bought it in North Dakota for a dubious project (he wanted to use the engine in a tractor)…when his father passed several years ago, he inherited it. Not sure of the year, probably a ’61.
He’s a car guy himself, but the Prinz is at another friend’s house where his wife is working on (slowly) restoring it.
The Prinz was so light, that he remembers it getting stuck in the snow, and he and his brother just got out and lifted it up to move it to where there was better traction. No need for winches when your vehicle is that light.
This is really cool. would love to see more of these features. looks like a Rambler dealership down on the left, just past the intersection. And used cars on the corner.
Is that a ’63 Chrysler ragtop at the stop sign by the Derby station, preparing to turn right?.
and a brand new Falcon rolling past the McDonalds. How about the contrast between the Falcon and the ’59 Ford pulling out behind it?.
Loving the 55 DeSoto sedan. My grandma drove one of those from probably around 1958-59 until the starter went out in 1967. I really loved that car, and this in-traffic shot of a garden-variety sedan reminds me of how good looking I always thought those were.
That top shot reminds me of the old magazine ads – “Watch the Fords go by”. Ads by Ford, of course.
In the late 1980s, the owner of a local business in my hometown was selling a 1955 DeSoto Fireflite four-door sedan. It was metallic light purple with a white color sweep, and in good original condition. Too bad I didn’t have the money to but it then!
If you enlarge the top photo, it appears as though every visible vehicle except for one – what looks like a 1959 Plymouth parked in the front of the McDonald’s lot – is either a Ford or a Chevrolet! Hard to imagine that happening in 2020!
Photo #1 reminds me of making and selling triple nickel burgers on Sunrise Highway in Rockville Centre Long Island NY at Joseph’s Hamburgers at age 16. I made one dollar an hour and all the burgers and cokes I could eat and drink during my 5 minute break. That may sound good, but it got old fast.
Fries were 10 cents, soda was 10 cents, and thick shakes were … , … oh-dear, even my long term memory is fading away.
I still do remember one of the boss’ sons letting me drive his new 1961 fawn beige Corvette with a 4 speed. That I clearly remember.
Or was it a 1962?
As a Californian who did not grow up in suburbia, the imports don’t surprise me but the McDonald’s and Dairy Queen do. The only fast food chain I remember seeing, or at least noticing, was a Foster Freeze. I honestly don’t think I ate at a McDonald’s until late high school or even college (early ‘70’s), Dairy Queen probably even later. Whereas in 1965 I would have recognized the Simca and TR3 right away.
Same here. While there was one of the original McDonald’s less than 20 miles away in Downey, I didnt see one built by the beach until the 1970’s. Never saw a DQ anywhere in Los Angeles back then. Foster Freeze was just a block away from our house. There was a local copy of McDonalds called Clancy’s.
The Foster of Fosters Freeze was Californian, and held the western rights to DQ. Today there are about 7000 DQ’s worldwide, and only about 70 Fosters. Even today, the town I live in has a Fosters but no DQ, though the town I grew up in now has both. Our local Fosters looks pretty much as it would have in the ‘50’s I suspect; a good setting in which to find a true CC parked by the curb.
A quick wiki search says the first DQ was opened in Joliet, Illinois, in 1940. I’d imagine it spread outwards from there.
Great photos! Thank you for sharing them.
I believe that the “shoebox” Ford in the second photo is a 1951 model. It sports chrome over the tail light “wind splits” on the side of the car, which was a feature of the 1951 model.
Thanks. Even when seeing the original source of these pictures they are still the same size as what we see here! Some of these were absurdly hard to identify.
These period photos show the huge contrast between longer, lower, wider (and flatter) vs. shorter, higher, narrower (and more round) that occurred over a span of not much more than a decade. The imports, especially the VW Beetle, bucked the trend.
In the Pittsburgh area where I grew up, in 1965 it was not uncommon to see 49-51 Fords and 49-52 Chevys, but they were for the most part on their last legs.
Jason, I always love your posts featuring vintage photos, and this is another great one. Also, great opening sentence. You’ve added valuable words and phrases to my vocabulary / lexicon over the years, so thank you.
I like the 28.9c gas!
Gas was cheaper than that when I started driving (mid to late sixties), one could usually find regular for 22 or 23 cents/gallon, especially at the no name stations. Of course I made all of 75 cents/hour at my first job as a busboy at Howard Johnson’s. I didn’t make much money at HoJo’s but I made up for it in food consumed, I could consume 10 dollars worth of clam rolls without any problems at all.