Putnam Dodge, Burlingame, CA.
Henri Fortin Auto Inc., Chicoutimi, Quebec.
Pistoresi Motor Sales, Madera, CA.
Winter Park Dodge, Winter Park, FL.
Carleton Motors, New Brunswick.
Northridge Plymouth, North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Vintage Dealer Postcards: Dodge Dealers 1960s-1970s
– Posted on October 26, 2024
Henri Fortin Dodge almost sounds like Henry Ford Dodge!
I bet Henri never heard that one before……
Back when I was a kid, in a city of about 15,000 we had Dodge Plymouth, DeSoto Plymouth, and Chrysler Plymouth Imperial dealerships. Ironically the last one to close was BOWMAN MOTORS DeSoto Plymouth which managed to survive for several years as a Plymouth only agency. Parents bought our 55 DeSoto Firedome there and turned down the last 61 DeSoto! The following June (62) they bought (much to my disappointment) the very last car ( a 62 Belvedere) from BOWMAN, when he retired. Now at well over 60,000 we have only one Dodge, Ram and Jeep agency. We don’t even have a Cadillac dealer! Oh how times have changed. Those WERE the days! I don’t recall postcards, but I have a four drawer file cabinet filled with then free advertising brochures.
Putnam Dodge, in the first photo, still sells Dodge plus 16 other brands, at various Bay Area (San Francisco) stores.
The Putnam Dodge building is largely intact, repurposed as a body shop. The white building to the right is Putnam Toyota. Love Pistoresi Motor’s A-100 pickup parts truck! .
Throughout the West (and presumably further east) there are still multi-marque dealerships. For example, Chrysler/Ram/Dodge/Jeep on one side of the building and Ford cars and trucks on the other. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to find and train mechanics, service and parts, in say, Libby, MT?!
Completely random. Madonna’s mother was a Fortin of French-Canadian descent. I wonder if there’s any connection with Henri Fortin. Her father was also a Chrysler engineer at one point. (Ask me if I’m a fan.)
French settlement in New France (Quebec), began in the early 1600’s. So, there is an excellent chance, those with the popular ‘Fortin’ surname in the province, would be related.
Looks like they are related! https://www.perche-quebec.com/madonna/individus/madonna-en.htm#2
Valiant was a separate marque in Canada from 1960-1966, which is why Fortin is selling Valiants along with Dodges and Chryslers, but not Plymouths (it was the same in the US for 1960 only).
Great work! The Fortin surname will appear in Quebec/Canadian current events, from time to time. This was national news.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/former-head-of-canada-s-covid-19-vaccine-rollout-filed-lawsuit-earlier-this-year-1.6994464
Amazing. Thank you for this!
Henri Fortin was Madonna’s great-grandfather (some sites show him as her grandfather, but I think those are getting confused by Madonna’s mom having the same name), but I can’t verify the Mopar dealership was named for the same Henri Fortin (or that of one of his sons who may have also been named Henri – it was something beginning with H). In fact I can’t find any evidence of the existence of Henri Fortin Auto Inc. beyond this one postcard from 1966 and its former location. I can’t even find a photo of the back of the postcard.
Anyone else notice the two Barracuda signs in the window? In Canada the first-gen Barracuda was a Valiant, not a Plymouth which is why this non-Plymouth dealership was selling them.
I was able to find some more information about Henri Fortin Auto – looks like the dealership changed ownership in 1968, and was renamed Chicoutimi Chrysler then. And incidentally, that dealership is still at the same location.
Here’s my favorite Henri Fortin ad – I like it because they’re advertising a used Epic (I assume an Envoy Epic)… not a car one often see ads for.
As for the Madonna connection, I somewhat doubt they’re closely related. Seems that Fortin is/was a common surname in parts of Quebec, and in the Ancestry of Madonna family tree, I don’t see anyone from the Saguenay area, where the dealership was located. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some intersection of the families at some point. Neat connection! I never knew that Madonna had French-Canadian ancestry.
Oops, Henri was Madonna’s grandfather, not great-grandfather. May or may not be the same Henri though.
Yes, random tidbit, but one that I will undoubtedly bring up during diner today with my wife. (Yeap, she’s a fan).
I’m not positive about this, but there’s a possibility that Carleton Motors was located in New Brunswick, rather than Ontario. There appear to have been businesses by that name in both provinces, but it looks to me that this could have been the location – in the town of Woodstock, about 60 mi. east of Fredericton.
If so, the building has been heavily modified over the years, but there are some things that are consistent between the two images below. For example, the two high bay doors next to the building, and the door and window patterns on the first floor (though the 2nd floor and the other additions differ from the original image). Also the topography is similar (the land rises steeply behind the building. One final thing is that it looks to me that the truck in the image has an early 1970s New Brunswick commercial license plate (distinctive because of the small leading “C” that’s visible if you enlarge the image. So, I’m not positive about this one, but to me it looks like this may be the location.
Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/h7H65qMs67JJmDuQ8
Great research, I support your hypothesis. You are having fun with this!
Numerous consistencies, for sure. An ambitious renovation!
I lived near the small community of Carleton Place, Ontario. And there was never a ‘Carleton Motors’ in Carleton Place. Or a Chrysler dealership, since the 1960’s. Never heard of a Carleton Motors more broadly, in Ontario. Including, the former Ottawa-Carleton municipal region.
Excellent work!
Yep, those are the same building. Look at how the overhang in both photos juts out ever so slightly above the front door area in both photos, or how there’s a post visible behind the rightmost first-floor window in the same place (adjusted for the slightly different angle). The fenestration (window and door size and placement) on the first floor is identical, and the second floor lines up too though the middle window was added and the other two made shorter, likely so stock-sized windows would fit. Also, look at how the blue siding above the leftmost garage door in the Carleton Motors pic dips about 6 inches below the top of the garage door opening on either side of it (rather than lining up with the top of the garage door opening). Though both sections are now painted blue, the same delineation between the formerly white and blue sections is still visible in the NAPA building in the same places.
Thanks LA673 – it was fun trying to find this one, so I’m glad I had success. Daniel, the other Carleton Motors I came across wasn’t near Ottawa at all, but rather in Windsor. I’m not sure it was ever a Dodge dealer though.
Great sleuthing again, Eric703!
Do I spot a red Type 3 notchback on the used car lot in Winter Park ?
In the Winter Park Dodge photo I noticed Friends Ave on the street sign. Is Friends Ave a real municipality named Ave or is this something the dealership came up with? I am wondering if that is real road or a driveway entrance to the building?
Friends Ave. is indeed a real city street. From what I can tell, it pre-existed the dealership building. Reminds me of Greensboro, NC, where one of the major streets is called Friendly Avenue (also a street named long ago).
How could you not have a picture of Hodges Dodges of Ferndale Michigan that was home of the Ramchargers Dodge. They weren’t far from Royal Pontiac with Ace Wilson’s Pontiac. What great memories.
Terrific pictures and commentary .
I *think* that red Typ III VW is a fastback……
-Nate
I like the variety of other makes parked in the street in the Pistores pictures, ’67 and ’60 Thunderbirds, Jeep wagon, ’59 Chevy and ’67 El Camino.
I was hoping for a Mr. Norm’s Grand Spaulding Dodge, but these are all great.
Enlarge the photo with the Type 3, and look around the light post near its right rear quarter. It sure looks like a notchback. There’s also a fintail Mercedes nearby.
Should I be surprised that Henri Fortin sells Valiants as well as Dodges and Chryslers? Wouldn’t a Lancer or later a Dart fit better with his other products? Or would this be an old sign from 1960 before Valiant became officially a Plymouth?
Or maybe that’s just Canada being different…
Valiant was a marque in the US just for ’60, but in Canada through ’66, sold at all Chrysler Corp dealers.
Winter Park Dodge used to be Luke Potter Dodge and I remember the camper being there in the photo as a kid. Yikes!
Last thing I thought I would see while opening this post is something from Chicoutimi (now Saguenay) Québec. My biological mother is from Chicoutimi and my adoptive parents were from Dolbeau-Mistassini about an hour further inland. My father’s childhood friend had a Ford dealership, but my father always got him to surce Mopar products from him. Niquet Automobile was probably the name, he eventually moved to the Montreal area and had an Audi, Porsche, and VW dealership in St. Bruno. Fortin is a very common name in Saguenay-Lac St. Jean area.
I remember driving a four-door 1973 Dodge dart and that cream color just like in the first picture
This Ford guy feels a pressing need to get to Pistorisi Motor Sales, and get those two Birds. That’s a ’60 and a ’67. I had a ’60 once, and presently have the ’67’s baby sister, a ’71 four-door.
Cool. There is a Dodge A100 truck at Pistoresi Motor Sales. I didn’t know they existed. I wonder how many were sold?
My uncle, Jim Mason owned Hodges Dodges. The family has pictures, I ‘m going to try and share some. Lots of good stories .
I have a photo book on vintage auto transporters (car hauling trucks). A couple of pictures in that book taken in the late 50s shows new Chrysler cars being transported from Michigan to points west on the decks of Great Lakes freighters.; that is, they were loaded on ships that haul grain, etc & the new cars were put atop the hatches (exposed to the elements) like so much steerage. Apparently, shipping autos by truck was fairly expensive back then, due to the size of the cars & the restrictive truck-length laws imposed by certain states (esp illinois).
Winter Park Dodge had a huge leasing business with car rental companies in the 80’s and 90’s. They were a major player