Text by Patrick Bell.
Our feature today is another round of images from the Dave Gelinas Collection. The photos in Dave’s collection show that he truly had an eye for the ordinary, as each represents a slice of life from the past. Please join us as we take a tour.
The tour commences on Main Street in Stowe, Vermont, in a Fall of 1961 image. The church steeple on the right is the most obvious landmark that remains today. The trees and hills in the background had turned to those glorious fall colors the New England states are so famous for.
Down on the road to the left was a 1960 Dodge Dart Seneca 4 door sedan at the Mobil pump, a 1957 Pontiac Chieftain or Super Chief Safari wagon heading this way, and a 6 cylinder powered 1958 Chevrolet wagon heading away. Parked in the road was a black 1961 or 1962 Ford Econoline, and on the other side of the couple was it’s competition, a Volkswagen T1 Transporter in red and white. The Esso service truck looked like a 1953-1955 Ford F-350.
Let’s head to Florida and get some orange juice at a All You Can Drink for 10 cents roadside stand. They didn’t look too busy at the time.
On the left edge was a black 1949 or 1950 Nash, and to the right a crossways 1949 or 1950 Chevrolet Fleetline De Luxe 2 door sedan. The blue car was a 1946-1948 Plymouth, and the yellow pickup on the right was a 1949-1953 Studebaker 3/4 ton.
Now we are in farm country, with a field next to the Marrs & Dyer General Merchandise store. As you can see, bottled soda pop was popular in that era.
An attendant appeared to be filling a 1951 Ford Deluxe that looked like it had some deck lid damage. Ahead of it was a 1947-1953 Chevrolet Advance Design Panel or it’s GMC equivalent. It may have been a delivery vehicle for a clothes cleaner.
Main Street in Greenport, New York, is where this location was, and it has not changed much over the years. Claudio’s Restaurant is still in operation.
A 1951 Chevrolet Styleline De Luxe 4 door sedan was parked to the left, and on the right side was a gray 1950 or 1951 Plymouth 4 door sedan. Moving up the street there was a 1946-1951 Willys Station Wagon, a black 1946-1948 Buick, and a maroon 1949 or 1950 Nash.
We have visited a similar Hires Root Beer truck in the past. It belonged to the Charles E. Hires Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was a 1947-1950 Chevrolet Advance Design, maybe a 4400 series with a platform bed. I see the driver had his own product stash in the cab. The car to the right may have been a 1949-1952 Pontiac Chieftain.
It was a short hop over to the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania, where we see a transit company building and a grocery store on the corner. The trolley car was part of the Liberty Bell Route.
Parked to the left was a 1949 Chevrolet Styleline De Luxe 4 door sedan, and the school bus was a 1942-1947 Ford.
Two young people were dressed warmly on a sunny winter day and were posing with a 1959 Plymouth Custom Suburban wagon. In the background was a Reisman’s Pretzel delivery van that was based in Philadelphia, the probable location of the image. The van may have been an International Metro.
The Best Appliance Company in an unknown location, a name brand appliance dealer where they gave away appliances. Just take your choice of the units there on the sidewalk.
Parked in the driveway was a V8 powered 1952 Ford Crestline Victoria 2 door hardtop. It looked good with two tone paint and white wall tires.
This was the Kirkwood Lodge in Osage Beach, Missouri, in the Lake of the Ozarks area. It was headquarters for the Les Gotcher Square Dancing Institute. Les is gone but the lodge remains.
Parked out front were from the left a 1953 Chevrolet Two-Ten, 1952 or 1953 Nash Ambassador 4 door sedan, 1954 Pontiac Star Chief Custom Catalina, 1950 Dodge Wayfarer Sedan, and a 1953 or 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe on the right end.
Now we are watching a parade in British Columbia going by the license plates that were issued in 1955, along with a Canadian car. The ambulance license plate was issued in Courtenay, which is on Vancouver Island. That could have been the location, or the ambulance might have been a guest in another parade. Wherever it was it looked like a cool spring or summer day.
The ambulance was a 1947-1950 Chevrolet Advanced Design 3100 De Luxe Panel, with a 1955 Dodge Crusader 4 door sedan behind it. Further back was a 1955 Chevrolet, while parked to the left was a 1946-1948 Dodge.
Here we have a bushel of buses all lined up and waiting for their riders. My guess is that it was a sports event of some kind. The first one obviously was owned by the Acorn Coach Company, and the destination sign looks like it says “CHARTER EU’. After that there are four other coaches with at least some red in their color palette, and at the far end are four matching units.
This was a QOTD feature from nine years ago where a fellow by the name of Gene Herman did a much better job of IDing these than I ever could. His conversations with fellow commenters really made the post. Here is the link.
We have bounced over to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Yoken’s was a well known family restaurant that was in business for many years. The restaurant building (to the right out of the photo), and the Sunoco building are now gone, and the neighborhood has grown, but the old sign remains and is operational.
The gold car with the roof rack was a 1957 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket 88 Holiday Coupe, and behind it was another Oldsmobile, a white 1955 88 or Super 88 4 door sedan. Between them was a white over green 1955 or 1956 Ford Country Sedan, and a black 1958 Chevrolet. And above the gold Oldsmobile’s hood looks like a 1952 Buick.
A happy couple was posing for the camera on a windy looking day. To the left was a 1957 Imperial or Imperial Crown 4 door Southampton, and to the right a 1956 Ford Fairlane Sunliner. The Sunliner was likely the couple’s car, and they looked too busy to be bothered with keeping the tires clean.
Fun fact: Ford sold more Sunliners in 1956 than ALL of the Imperialw sold in 1957 & 1958.
Scottie Barber Shop, a small shop in an unknown but obviously a southern locale due to the window mounted air conditioner. Plus they served Seven-Up.
Two 1962 Ford’s were in this image; a F-100 Styleside beside the building, and a Falcon driving into the photo.
And the tour concludes in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the St. Moritz Motel on Virginia Avenue. All of this has been replaced with new and improved buildings.
Parked under the motel sign was a blue 1960 Ford Fairlane 500 Club Sedan, and beyond it was a 1959 Rambler Ambassador Super Cross Country wagon. Further down was the corner and taillight of a black 1966 full size Mercury. At the curb was a 1963 Dodge Dart, and behind it a Ford C-series beverage truck.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! Americana looking great. Thank you.
Boy, you said it. Thank you. Long before “press one for English”.
Thank you. The America I grew up in.
I didn’t have to think too hard about the location for Photo #7 (Plymouth Suburban with Reisman’s Pretzel van in the background). That’s my family’s old neighborhood – most likely taken in the Rhawnhurst or Fox Chase section of Northeast Philadelphia.
A lot of the houses there look similar, but I know of a few blocks with this exact style of house. I think I found the actual house in the background (by the pattern of the stonework). It’s a few blocks from where my grandmother lived.
Then-and-now image below – Google StreetView link to the block:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/euF594Bckx4mq5iX6
Lots of Nashes in this batch!
In the BC pic, the beige Dodge is a Kingsway. The bags under the eyes give away the Plymouth genes.
Was great to see the one in “Missouri” without the silly , continental, spare. Car looks so much nicer without it.
Thanks, I will put that tip in my memory bank.
Downtown Stowe, VT still looks a lot like that except I’ve NEVER seen it that uncrowded at the height of foliage season!
We’ve seen lots of other images of the Sunliner couple over the years at CC!
I’m curious about Best Appliances too – do they haul those deep-freezers in and out of the store every night? Westinghouse seemed to be their main brand – they later sold their appliance business to White Consolidated Industries, the same company that also bought the appliance divisions that most American car companies had back then – Frigidaire (GM), Kelvinator (AMC), Franklin (Studebaker), and indirectly Philco (Ford) in most of the world. The other brand they advertise – RCA/Whirlpool – made all the kitchen appliances in the 1962 house I grew up in (they dropped the RCA branding a few years later), which were strangely high-end appliances for a small starter house. Also, why does an appliance store have a drive-in?
I was able to figure out the location for Best Appliance Co. – it was at 1023 W. State St. in Boise, Idaho. The entire block of stores is long gone.
From what I can tell, Best opened in 1955, and they took over an existing appliance store called the Good Housekeeping Store. When Good Housekeeping opened in 1947, they advertised that they had their own parking lot, and customers could “Drive Right In”. That’s probably the origin of the sign – advertising that customers could drive right up to the store, rather than an actual “Drive In.”
The ad below was from 1957, and evidently the store still had the “Drive In” sign at that point, too.
It must be grandparents day, Eric.
I found another image of Best Appliance where the State Capitol building showed in the background three blocks away. I thought it had a Boise feel, but did not have time to do any further research. Besides, you are so much more efficient at it than I am. My grandparents lived in downtown Boise about that time, probably 6 or 8 blocks away. I remember that area when I stayed with them awhile in 1961, and in later visits as well.
Amazing! It’s interesting that you noted the photo had a “Boise feel” to you. I’ve never been to Boise, but I was surprised by the photo’s location. To my East Coast-centric eyes, the architecture of the two-story building in the background looked more Mid-Atlantic or Great Lakes than Western.
The Best Appliance store didn’t last for long – looks like it closed before 1960. An auto parts store took its place, followed by a music store by the late 1960s.
Goon have to ferret out some info on “Dave Gelinas”. Not a name I know. The woodie, wagon, in “Greenport NY” was looking robust,then.
Not sure if that green 55 Dodge in the parade is a Crusader. I don’t think a Crusader would have the sculpted hood, I think they were plain hoods unless they were on Dodge Royals. I could be wrong.
Well, I checked further, and every Dodge I can find in 1955 had a sculpted hood, with a chrome strip for trim.
Photo number 6 is Quakertown, PA, looking up North Main St from the southeast corner of West Broad and Main, likely in the summer of ’49. Note that Quakertown is not technically the Lehigh Valley, but does border it to the south. Lehigh Valley Transit ran first horse cars, then trolley cars, light rail, and busses for over a century. Up until the mid-fifties they ran a 36-mile interurban rail service connecting Allentown and Philadelphia. The building to the left is largely unchanged, and has been a salon (under different owners and names) for some time. Directly across the street from that building, behind and to the left of the photographer, stands an historic inn well-known to locals, the Red Lion Inn. The Airport sign on the telephone pole at the right edge of the photo points to the Quakertown municipal airport, about two miles west of this location. Here is the current google street view.
The Liberty Bell trolley line ran its last car through Quakertown on September 7, 1951. The Levy transportation company still provides school bus service for the Quakertown School District.
My dad remembered one trip on the trolley when he was very young, he grew up in the Hellertown area. He gave me a token from that trolley line. During the Revolutionary War, the Liberty Bell was hidden from the British in Allentown. The trolley line pretty much followed the road they used to move it.
Thank you all for the additional information.
THANK YOU FOR THESE ! .
This is the image I remember from the late 50’s ~ mid ’60’s when I were a lad in New England .
-Nate