The term “modern” has been with us for quite a while, an ever-present concept that many are always in pursuit of; the car world being no exception. Recently, we took a look at some Mid-Century Googie-Inspired modernist car dealerships, and for today, we’ll take a look at the previous era of modernism: the Art Deco/Streamline Moderne age. This collection of vintage car dealership postcards features a good mix of the ideas of progress and modernity from those days, from neon signs to the “streamlined” concrete structures that defined them.
Our opening image shows City Chevrolet, in San Diego, CA.
McDaniel Motor Company (Nash), Glendale, CA.
M & O Chevrolet Company, Fayetteville, NC.
Masters Pontiac, Long Beach, CA. (It had become Salta Pontiac by the 1960s.)
Jerry Smith’s Buick, Kansas City, MO.
Henry Stanley Pontiac, Liberty, MO.
Fairway Motors, DeSoto-Plymouth, Jamaica, NY.
Smith-Gandy Ford, Seattle, WA.
Race Motor Sales, Edsel, Ferndale, MI.
Mid-West Sports Car Center (Saab-Fiat-Volvo), Omaha, NE.
Lee Circle Inc. (Mercedes-Benz, DKW, Porsche, Fiat, Lancia), Milford, CT.
Miller Chevrolet, St. Joseph, Missouri, MO.
Holbert’s Garages Inc. (Porsche), Warrington, PA.
Feld Chevrolet, Kansas City, KS.
Harrison Buick-Pontiac, Noblesville, IN.
Volvo and Saab in one dealership. bizarre. If Saab were still around today, you wouldn’t see that combo.
Pip, I’m in Omaha, NE., & trying to figure out where this dealer was! I don’t recognize the building and think it was razed decades ago. I can only guesstimate the photo was taken about 1960-61 or so, and looks to be an area that was cleared out for our interstate #480 that now cuts through downtown Omaha N to S. That would have been 1962-64 period.
Gotta warm up the wayback machine and go car shopping .
-Nate
I’d go with you if I could grab the two SAABs in front of the Sports Car Center in Omaha, NE.
Sign me up too! I want that low slung red Maserati at the far left of the Lee Circle dealership photo. It will probably cost me as much as a new Camry today but would be worth it.
Somehow the Smith Gandy building has survived mostly as pictured here, except for the Pylon getting cut down to the rest of the building’s height. 1100 Olive Way is the address.
Same with Miller Chevrolet in St. Joseph. Surprising, since it hasn’t been used as a car dealership in about 40 years, and cycled through tenants such as a pawn shop, a few contractors, etc. Looks like it’s vacant now, but the structure itself still looks good.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/2SzLDVWZpSY9g8ZC8
Surprising that it managed to avoid the paint sprayer, unlike the former Ford Dealership.
Thanks, “pylon” was the word I was looking for 🙂
Why’d they have to go and chop that down? To paraphrase the Dude, It really tied the building together.
I don’t understand why they chopped a bunch of those down. There are still some survivors out there. International Harvester had a couple of standard dealership designs often referred to as Pylon Buildings.
Here is a link to IH dealerships buildings that have and have not survived, many of them the Pylon Style with many still at full height. https://www.ihdealerspast.net/
I love those commercial buildings from the 1930s (and some of this carried over into post-war years) that have the tall rectangular brick signs. The Masters Pontiac and Smith-Gandy Ford dealers in this selection are good examples. This was also a common design feature of supermarkets and department stores of the time. I don’t know what you call those things (that feature), but they’re great.
The Chevrolet dealer building in Fayetteville NC is still standing and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The “Sports Car Center” in Omaha is gone. Google shows a grassy field and some parking spaces at 2752 Farnam St. (the former address). That pulled from a Saab listing of US authorized service centers in 1961. http://www.vintagesaabmanuals.org/uploads/1/9/1/5/19154273/saab_authorized_sales_and_service_outlets_-_1961.pdf
My attention was drawn to that Sports Car Center building too. I researched the building’s history, and surprisingly its first use was as a Mack Trucks factory store, which opened in the mid 1920s. I didn’t know that Mack sold direct to consumers… have no idea how common their factory stores were, but apparently this was one of them.
At some time in the 1940s, the site was sold and became Lied Buick (later Lied Plymouth). The Sports Car Center moved to that site in 1959, but was short lived. The site became Omaha Volkswagen in about 1961, though the VW dealer evidently subleased part of the site to a company called “Foreign Cars, Inc.,” and its unclear whether this was the same entity as the Midwest Sports Car Center, or not.
Anyway, VW didn’t last long there either, and the building was sold again, becoming Metropolitan Lincoln-Mercury in 1962. They stayed there for 11 years, before moving to a bigger location. At that time, Metro L-M still owned the building, and they leased it to Omaha Public Schools for school bus storage. At some point in the 1980s or ’90s, the building was sold to the church located next door, which razed it for parking.
Mid West Sports Cars also sold Borgwards , according to a sign in the window. I’ll have a P100 .
Eric, You answered many question I had about the ‘Sports Car Center’ in Omaha, where I live. I was not sure where that bldg was and figured it’s long gone, which it is. The Novak family owned the VW dealership, along with a Cadillac/Chevrolet dealership a couple blocks away. I used to work there.
If it weren’t the wild west for signage back when that was a common feature I’d say it was a way to dodge sign laws. IE a sign on a post can only be x’ high but you can put a sign on the side of your taller building.
I’m guessing some of them got chopped down due to structural concerns, others of course to “modernize” it.
I found a 1961 listing in AUTOMOTIVE NEWS indicating that Midwest Sports Car Center changed its name to Foreign Cars, Inc., in spring 1961, still with a Saab franchise. It’s still on that 1961 Saab service center list under the new name.
Gotta wonder what preceded and followed that stand-alone Edsel dealer. Mr. Race was no doubt disappointed with his dealership investment. Might be some kind of record for the shortest signage life ever.
I don’t recall the local DeLorean dealer ever having a sign out front, other than for the other marques sold in the same building.
Race had a Chrysler-Plymouth franchise before Edsel. As far as I can tell, he left the car business for good after his brief Edsel venture.
City Chevrolet is still there on the corner of Morena Blvd and Milton St. in the Mission Bay area of San Diego.its now called Sedano Chevrolet They did move the back back from the intersection. It looks like its right on the street there. I used to live up the street from it.
That picture is from when they were at the corner of 1401 Kettner at Ash pretty much downtown. This area now is drastically different from back in the 60s and 70s. Many high rise office and apartment buildings. Absolutely stuns me.
The 2nd pic of the McDaniel Motor Company, wonder what year that was. Just seems like a pretty modern looking building for the probable year.
Judging by the car in the showroom, I’d figure the mid 1920s. Interestingly, there’s two versions of this photo floating around the Internet. The one shown above, and also one that has the Nash’s price ($999.99) painted on the showroom window, attached below.
I presume the photo with the price was taken by the dealership or architect shortly after the building opened. The photo without the price was used in a 1933 ad by the Portland Cement Association, advertising concrete construction, and I guess they airbrushed out the price signs.
Here’s the 1933 cement industry ad featuring this shot (with window prices removed):
FYI – this Kia dealer in the old Holbert’s building – if you squint, you can see it still under the new construction: https://maps.app.goo.gl/NkeTJuXPc2XohLar5
Actually, the original Holbert’s building as shown above was next door, at 1409 Easton Rd. Holbert’s constructed the building that’s now the Kia dealership in 1969-70 (and another showroom for VW’s farther up Easton Rd. at about the same time).
The original building is still standing, and is used as a shopping center. It was visually altered in the late 2010s – painting, adding awnings, and removing the brick pylon sign (thanks to Scoutdude for pointing out the correct name for this above!). But in older Google StreetView images, we can see it’s the same building since the pylon sign is still there.
Google StreetView link below:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/sbecLYZxdUnxwgsn7
I was born and raised in Newport Beach, CA. As a teenager in the sixties I remember Mike Salta Pontiac being advertised on television and radio. When I first heard the ad, I thought the announcer said “Mike sold a Pontiac.” I thought, so what. My Dad bought a Buick.” A few months later I found out how much I didn’t know.