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Text by Patrick Bell.
The car count is high today, too high for me to feasibly ID all of them. I have pointed out many, but there are plenty left for you to chew on. (Here is a good way to use some of your spare time!)
Our first photo shows a fancy-looking grain elevator with a monorail passing by and a hilly landscape in the background. There were mostly American-made cars in the parking lot, and it appears the time period was around 1972. The oldest on the lot were a rust-colored 1946-1948 Dodge 4-door sedan, a blue 1947-1953 Chevrolet Advance Design pickup, and a black 1948-1950 Ford F-1 pickup. The newest were at least 1971 models, mostly Ford products. These included a white Mercury Comet 4-door, a black F-100 with a camper shell, a white Galaxie 500 4-door sedan, and a green Pinto. There was also a blue VW Type 1 that looked like a Super Beetle. Foreign cars included five VW Type 1 sedans, two Datsun 510s, and one Toyota Corona. Visible pickups included five GM models and six Fords, plus one El Camino and an International Scout. I spot three Studebakers: a 1952 and two 1964 or 1965 models.
The image notes indicate that this photo was taken in Montreal, and the building in the left background was the Canadian Cork Company. Towards the far end of the third row from the left was a Volkswagen Type 1 with a big back window, which made it at least a 1958 model. It was the newest I could ID, but there were at least ten 1957 models. Quebec license plates were dark-colored for 1957 and light for 1958, so I am guessing this was in 1958. There are at least eight late 1940s cars, including a 1946-1948 Dodge sedan in the right foreground. Several imported cars were scattered about, including an Austin Somerset at the left lower edge. In front of it was a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Sunliner with the top down, and across the aisle a 1957 Meteor Rideau 500 4-door sedan. Both showed off the new long and low style 1957 Ford style.
We are now in San Leandro, California, at the Kellogg’s packaging plant. The building has survived, but has been repurposed. The newest cars in the lot were two 1959 models: a tan Chrysler in the left background and a gray and white Ford Custom 300 on the right. Other identifiable units in the parking lot that day were, from the left, a green 1952 Ford Customline Club Coupe six-cylinder, a white over green 1950 Pontiac Chieftain de Luxe 4-door sedan, a white over grey 1951 or 1952 Dodge Coronet Diplomat 2-door hardtop, a sharp white over red 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, and a 1950 Studebaker 4-door sedan.
We have a definite date and location for this photo: the Union Carbide Eveready Batteries plant in Greenville, North Carolina, on November 30, 1962. In the parking lot were various representatives of the Big Three American automakers. From the left, there was a 1961 Buick Special, a V8-powered 1958 Chevrolet Biscayne 4-door sedan or Brookwood wagon, a 1949 Plymouth Special De Luxe 4-door sedan, a 1955 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe sedan, a 1961 Mercury 4-door sedan, a 1959 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan, and a 1959 Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe.
Let’s head to the Oak Park section of Chicago and catch the CTA at the Ridgeland Avenue Station. This 1964 photo also has a variety of American iron to gaze at. Starting on the left was someone’s rolling project, a 1957 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan with Plymouth-style wheel covers, a common “upgrade” of the era. Next were a white 1961 Mercury Monterey 4-door sedan, a white over blue 1957 DeSoto 4-door sedan, a white 1963 Ford Falcon Futura 4-door sedan, a blue over white 1958 Oldsmobile Holiday Sedan, a black over white 1964 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, a white 1962 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan, a white 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air 2-door sedan, a black wagon that might have been a 1960-1963 Falcon or Comet, a white car I’m not sure about, a gold 1961 Oldsmobile Holiday Sedan, and a beige 1960 Cadillac 6-Window Sixty-Two Sedan or Sedan de Ville.
This photo was taken in downtown Oakland, California, from the parking lot of a Safeway grocery store. The building under construction was the future Social Security building at 360 22nd Street. In the right background, you can see the Tribune Tower. The newest car I can see in the lot was a 1957 Ford, nosed in the center of the frame. Towards the left were a 1952-1954 Ford, a 1949 or 1950 Ford, a 1952 Chevrolet, and another 1946-1948 Dodge.
The image notes say this photo was taken in 1964 and shows the Cabot Titania Corporation in Ashtabula, Ohio. I am a little skeptical about that, but we are here to look at the cars. From the left were a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air Nomad, a Volkswagen Type 1, two Chevrolet Corvair Monza Coupes (black 1962 or 1963 and a maroon 1964), a 1959 Chevrolet Impala 4-door sedan, and 1965 Rambler American 220 wagon. At the very right edge of the frame was a 1965 Impala.
Image notes say this photo was taken in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and I will call the date early 1963. In the left foreground was a turquoise 1962 Mercury Monterey 4-door sedan that looked new, with a price sticker in the window. If you look close you can see the black Florida license plate pushed between the body and bumper. In the background were a blue over white 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air 4-door sedan, a Jeep CJ-5?, a red and white 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxie Club Victoria, a 1960 Rambler American 4-door sedan, and a Renault Estefette van. At the right of the frame was a 1960 Comet.
We are back in Chicago, looking at the John Hancock Center building under construction in 1968. This view was looking to the north from a parking lot on Monroe Street, with the Randolph Street Viaduct at the far end of the lot. There is a lot to look at here: On the first row across the aisle in the foreground were two 1968 red cars: a Chrysler Newport on the left and an Oldsmobile Cutlass Holiday Coupe on the right. Across the next aisle was a black over gold 1968 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight that was surrounded by imports: a Triumph TR and Volkswagen Type 1 on the left, and a Renault R8/8 and perhaps another Triumph TR on the right. I see two vans and many wagons, but no pickups. The oldest cars seem to be from 1960 — a Chevrolet and a Rambler.
This slightly blurry photo was taken in the mid-1960s at the Palmdale facility of North American Aviation, an aerospace company headquartered in Los Angeles. The sun looked low, so it might have been early morning, before the crowds arrived. In the foreground was a sharp-looking bronze 1965 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, and in the background at the left was a blue 1964 or 1965 Ford Thunderbird Landau with a white vinyl roof. Those two were the newest; behind the Cadillac was the oldest, a 1952-1954 Ford Customline Country Sedan station wagon. Next to the Country Sedan were a white 1962 Falcon Futura and a 1963 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday Sedan 4-door hardtop. At the right, there was another 1963 Super 88 Holiday Sedan and a different Falcon, a tan 1963 model.
Our final image today is dated April 1979 and shows a parking lot on the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) campus, south of the Arts & Sciences Hall (ASH). The 1970s was a decade of change in the automobile world, fueled by the perceived lack of fuel during two gas crises, and it shows in this photo. The foreign car ratio was much higher than in the earlier photos shown above, the cars were smaller, and pickups were getting more popular. The oldest cars I can see were a 21-window Volkswagen Type 2, in the background at the left edge of the frame, and in the next row, a black Volvo P210 Duett. At the far right, near the Quonset hut, was a dirty and battered 1965 Pontiac Tempest Sports Coupe. There were still some scattered land yachts showing their length, two more VW Type 2s (one a Westfalia), two AMC Pacers, two VW Type 3 Fastbacks, what might have been a black Volvo 145, two Volkswagen Rabbits, a Volvo 164, an Opel GT, maybe three AMC Gremlins, a Hornet Sportabout, five VW Type 1 Beetles, and at least four Ford Pintos or Mercury Bobcats.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
Note: If you wish to see your vintage photos featured at Curbside Classic, send them to us at [email protected].
Thanks Rich, so many to identify, should keep us busy for hours.
In the last image facing away is a 1975-ish Mazda RX4 wagon in silver, but looks grey in the photo. It is located in the middle slot of the three end parking spots just before the long double line of cars farther away on the left, facing a green sign and just above the basket handle roof of an AMC Pacer.
As usual, Rich, an essay written with erudition. Thanks for the views and commentary.
Thanks, Thomas. Just a gentle reminder, I provide the sights, and Patrick Bell adds the commentary in most of these galleries.
The first photo is at the Hershey Company facilities in Pennsylvania. The monorail runs visitors on a tour of the chocolate plant, the adjacent zoo, and the Hershey Park amusement park. At first, I thought that the monorail itself looked to be inserted into the photo, maybe as a visual prototype (since the monorail’s windows don’t seem transparent in the photo) – but I don’t think that’s the case because the Hershey monorail began operations in 1969, and this photo was taken a few years after that. Although the monorail itself appears to have been rerouted since then.
Then-and-now comparison below. Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3qwiYXzwxbqFTry96
The Chicago pic with the Triumphs are definitely TR4s of some sort. The dark one on the left doesn’t have the TR250 reflective stripe across the front, the white one looks to have the chrome lettering of TR4a IRS.
I’m thinking that the white TR may be a TR250, the six cylinder with IRS but carbureted, sold here in the US between the TR4 and the TR6. But I can’t really justify my gut feel 😀.
In the first photo, is the black car next to the light blue VW Beetle a 4-door Ford Falcon?.
Yes, it was a 1960 or 1961 model. Thanks for asking.
I share your skepticism about the location of the photo noted as being a Cabot plant in Ashtabula. I did find another location that may be a possibility. The then-and-now comparison below shows the location of what, in the 1960s, was a plant of Armour & Co. west of Chicago, which was used to manufacture Dial soap.
Industrial facilities change a great deal over the years, but there are several similarities here. For one, there’s a water tower in the back that says “Montgomery” (it’s located in the village of Montgomery). Also the taller structure to the left in both the current and vintage scenes had a green band on the top (faded now, but it’s there)… and also the smaller building is brick, and has high, narrow windows. The industrial operations themselves appear changed, but not beyond reason. So, I think there’s a decent chance that this was the vintage location. (The plant itself is now owned by an Indian company called VVF, which appears to be the current parent company of the Dial brands.)
Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/wCzWVAYq3HXx7jaS8
Thanks for your comments on both images, Eric. As always, your talents bring a lot to the table.
The first photo what caught my eye was the two tone 65? Studebaker. I don’t recall them that way, but I recall a car salesman from that era who said if he had a slow moving car on the lot he’d two tone it in bright colors. Also the last photo shows about 7 pickups which immediately caught my eye.You don’t see any, or any SUVs for that matter except for a Jeep or two in the other photos. However the Hershey photo had about 9, although I suspect a few were work trucks for the company or contractors, in a solidly blue collar parking area. Even station wagons don’t seem to be that plentiful.
Pic # 8 includes a black EMD (GM) SW9 switcher.
I am loving looking at these and wish I was at home where I have a magnifying glass to help look at a those wonderful old vehicles .
I don’t see any Motocycles .
-Nate
I see a motorcycle in the Hershey picture.
Hi JoAnn, I see that too under the monorail, something with a right kickstand, British perhaps? Also, did you see the single axle Mack U model pulling a 40(?) foot ribside, and what looks like an IH bobtail tractor in front of them.
Hi Howard, I saw the two trucks but wasn’t positive what they were. Glad to see you identify them for us. I was also wondering about those two guys? Are they putting some “Hot” Hershey bars in the back of their red Ford pickup? In picture 7, Ashtabula, Ohio, looks like a white International behind the fence, up on higher ground.
I read, the Mack U model came out in 1964, and judging by the cars, it could have been their “new” truck, and what appears to be a late 50s or early 60s IH R190 as the “old” truck, now a spare. That’s where I came in. Many times I got a trucking job by inquiring about the “spare” truck,,,with so-so results, I might add. I think that Ashtabula pic is an IH Loadstar, and in the “cork” pic, some sort of straight truck with a load in the upper left corner. The 2 guys in the Hershery pic, have head coverings, and I’d assume workers on a break.
At this time, I’d like to say, several years ago, on a car website that no longer exists, a guy named “Pat” could identify EVERY single car in those parking lots. Not sure how he did it, would take WAY too long to look them all up, apparently passed away, RIP, Pat.
This CTA railcar in the fifth photo looks unusually lightweight for a North American rail train.
It could just as easily have been used as a commuter train by any European railway company.
The CTA is the Chicago Transit Authority and runs trains (and buses) in and around Chicago, including above ground and underground. It’s a metro rail system.
Just for grins I sent the first photo to ChatGPT. It will come as no surprise that what it came up with was fantastically, hysterically wrong (but presented in that chatty, supremely confident way in which it always spreads lies). Probably due to the monorail, a common feature of some industrial towns like Wuppertal, it decided it was looking at a “German industrial workforce parking lot” and noted an absence of “obvious American full-size cars.” It went on to say that there were “dozens” of VW Beetles (there are 7 that I can see), Opels (probably zero) and Ford Taunuses (also likely zero) present. It also described the monorail as “suspended underneath the track” which it is not.
If this is the future, count me out—I’d rather ask directions from someone who admits they’re lost rather than confidently point me toward a cliff.
That’s great! So true about AI’s “supremely confident”… um … lies. Makes you wonder how much of this stuff people believe 100%.
A fun thing to do is ask the chatbots a very obscure question that you know the answer to. One I tried was: “In the 1985 TV series Stingray, what type of pistol was depicted in the title sequence?” I sent that to DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. Only Claude admitted it did not know and could not find the answer, the other three “hallucinated” three different wrong answers, all presented in that cheerfully authoritative way they often deliver bad information, surrounding it with all kinds of detail that would convince most people they were getting the right answer. In the real world this is called bullshitting and as it turns out, that’s what it’s called in academia too. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5
For the record, the pistol was a Detonics Pocket 9, now a collector’s item.
Hummmm. I went to the Hersey factory in the late 1960s, and I don’t remember the monorail. That’s strange, as I find monorails particularly memorable. ( https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/The_Monorail_Song )
What I do recall is the Hershey Kiss assembly line and the lady factory workers (they certainly seemed to be all women) in their hair nets wrapping Kisses in foil. And the Hershey street lights that were Kiss-shaped.
Unfortunately, by the time I took my kids to visit in the early 2000s, the actual factory tour was forbidden and instead we got some kind of god-awful chocolate theme park experience that mostly featured a gigantic gift shop. And still no monorail.
70 GTO in the monorail one
Good call on the 65 Chevy in the “64 Photo”. Makes me wonder though, how early were the new models out back then? I know it’s not out of the ordinary to see new vehicles, BEFORE the year change.
Great Pics.
Today I’d like to walk back in time and drive away with the Rambler 220 wagon. Too cold out for British sports cars.
I visited Hershey in the early 80’s, I don’t remember the monorail but I do remember riding the SooperDooperLooper at HersheyPark.
Nobody cares for any commentary besides location and time, we just want to see the old cars and buildings! But mostly the cars!
Wow. Good catch on the Opel GT in the last pic. I had to look long and hard to find it even after I knew it was there.