Stewart Jones Motors, St. Petersburg, FL.
Carl E. Filer Co., Studebaker, Greenville, PA.
Dave Lowe Studebaker Motor Sales.
Mansker’s Auto Sales, Studebaker, Lakewood, CA.
Dixie Motors, Shelbyville, TN.
Coggins Studebaker, Charlottesville, VA.
Hodak Motor Sales, Kankakee, IL.
Altamont Motor Co., Altamont, IL.
Western Motors, Pendleton, OR.
The Trading Post is a neat idea… you could imagine it selling Studebaker wagons. The wagon company did have lots of dealers before 1900. Did any of them last as long as the company?
That is one of the great rules of the business world – sometimes the well-established company just cannot see far enough ahead to get into a new business. At the turn of the 20th Century, Studebaker had a sales and distribution network second to none. They had the most prominent billboard on New York’s Times Square at the time. But other than the ill-fated Studebaker-Garford joint venture or the early electrics, they didn’t get into the auto business in a competitive way until way too late. The right products (a popularly-priced car and a line of light/medium trucks) coming out in, say, 1905, could have changed history.
Like the first image of Stewart Jones Motors. The backlit lettering on the roof gives it kind of a deluxe feel for post WWII car dealerships, along with the floor-to-ceiling glass. Those `52 models look just right in that setting!
Interesting ~ some are well funded, one is a _service_station_, wow .
-Nate
It’s something I’ve noticed about the dealership photographs on here, hardly any seem to have a petrol station. Over here up until the late eighties and early nineties it was not at all unusual for a car dealer , mostly new but sometimes second hand, to have a petrol station. I think the idea was a bit of income and getting people onto the premises. In the town where I grew up people tended to buy cars from the Ford & Vauxhall dealers where they filled up. Thinking about it now it was all a bit tribal.
There are some cool photos online, of trucks in front of Dave Lowe’s Trading Post. It seemed to be in Niles, Michigan.
The Trading Post evidently sold Buicks and Cadillacs (that’s somewhat hard to be envision) as well. And horses.
The ad below advertises their staff, and their riding stables.
The site itself is still in use as a car dealership.
Always impressed by these smaller, more humble dealerships. Where the ownership, and employees, have a strong sense of pride of presentation of their building, property, and in their work.
This building at 7215 Baltimore Ave, College Park, MD – a few blocks from where I used to live – was originally a Studebaker dealer (Nelson Motors?), and later housed Bowman Edsel. Today it’s a Zips dry cleaners, but still has several large overhead doors (some now shut off) to allow cars in and out of the building. I can’t find any photos of it from when it was a car dealership.
This is the best picture I could find of Nelson Motors. Too bad the turret didn’t survive:
Wow, that’s awesome! I’d never have suspected there was ever a turret on the roof. Now I feel like climbing up on the roof (or sending a drone to take photos) to see if there’s any evidence of where it was. I always wonder why distinctive architectural elements like that are removed – it most have cost significant money to remove it. Did it get damaged, or did someone just not like how it looked?
The building in this ad looks very similar but the address given is different. In any case it seems to show Nelson became Bowman before they changed to selling Edsels.
Google Earth view of Zips, nee Nelson Studebaker roof – I can sort of make out where the turret stood (just behind the rounded corner entrance) but it’s not obvious
Believe the address in the “ad” is near the old “Walter Reed Hospital”, site.
A way’s away from “Rt 1”, (Baltimore Ave)
Possibly, old “Curtis Chevrolet” was using this site.
Have a co worker who lives in “Shepard Park”. They’re too young to know any of this.
Pic #1, could be and “Ed Hopper”, print. The “Greenville PA”, pic is from my part of the world.
“Thiel College”, is the towns focus.
+1 on the Edward Hopper vibe. Those first three photos have great composition and contrast.
Cool signage too.
Here’s then-and-now comparison of the Carl. E. Filer building in Greenville, Pa. Vacant now, but still standing. I believe this was originally built as a Studebaker dealership in 1926.
Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yD5rTNpRL6W2zVkD8
“Studebaker owners”, club site says “Mr Filer” kept the dealership till “68”.
Not sure what he sold after “66”. Unsold “Stude’s”/used cars maybe?
“Greenville PA”, is about equal distance from “Pgh”, and “Cleveland”. Not relevant to this conversation; a cool “factoid”.
I just stumbled upon this discussion last evening. Greenville, PA is my hometown and I became friends with the Filer family in the early ’90’s. We were a Chevy family but the Chevy dealer was behind and to the right of Filer’s and I remember many times with my Dad driving through there from the Chevy dealer to hit S. Race St. Just yesterday I was in Greenville, after hearing that the lettering above the front of the building survived in the loft of the barn of the current owners of Filers’ farm house in the outskirts. Too big for me to keep but I thought I might try to sell them for a minimum amount to benefit the historical society, where I volunteer in Greenville. The letters were behind stacks of wood and a few letters needed regluing, although the current owner said all pieces were there. I took pics yesterday but not sure if I can post here.
Filer’s also got M-B in Nov. ’57 and in Feb. ’58 had a 300SL roadster in for three days to show people, per an article in the local paper then. They added Simca in ’64 and Sunbeam shortly later. You could be a Studebaker service and parts dealer through ’72 but he severed his ties with Stude in Dec. ’68. The Chrysler-Plymouth-AMC dealer hired a couple of his mechanics and they actually got the Stude service dealer franchise through ’72.
Filer signed with Studebaker in 1926 and operated in a rented building until this building pictured was built in 1946-47. It was located near the shops of the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, in order to get their drive-by employee traffic.
The building was an L-shape and the shop was wider than the showroom. It had six individual bays, each with its own overhead door. One was high for big trucks.
Thank you for all this detail! You may have seen this already, but there’s another picture of Carl E. Filer that was posted here as well – with a Packard Caribbean out front. That picture is at the bottom of this post:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-snapshots-and-photography/vintage-snapshots-cars-from-the-1950s-in-tri-tones-colors-colors-and-colors/
This is the first time I’ve heard of Coggins Studebaker in Charlottesville, Virginia, where I’ve lived since 1992.
I did a little digging, in the vein of Eric703’s sleuthing, and came up with this newspaper ad from 1962. As far as I can recollect, the building depicted at that location was gone by the time I moved here.
This is the current approximate location on Preston Avenue — note the slope of the street is about the same.
Got to make a trip back to “Charlottesville”. Have not been there since about “1997”!
Pics of the Filer Co. sign taken 2/24/25. Three or so pieces. The “Filer” is first as it sits, then the “Carl E.”, then the smaller “co” on its side.
If you’re trying to attach an image and it won’t load, try reducing the file size. If a picture is 1,200 pixels wide or less, it should load here.
One of the pics I took yesterday. As it sits, the “FILER” is first, with “CARL E.” slightly behind it. The smaller “CO” was off to the right, on its side.
Oh well it’s a jpeg in the size it should work. No problems posting pics anyplace but this site. The pic isn’t that great anyway lol.
Third try.
Filer first, and Carl E. tucked behind.