Today’s gallery of vintage Pontiac dealer postcards takes us back to a decade that began a dramatic change for the brand. The 1950s saw Pontiac starting to evolve from its conservative Silver Streak era into a more youthful, performance-minded “Wide-Track” division; traits that would define it in the following decade. Along the way, these dealership scenes showcase not only a fun lineup of Chieftains, Star Chiefs, Bonnevilles, and Catalinas, but also the distinctive architecture, signs, and showrooms that welcomed customers into Pontiac’s rapidly changing world.
Our opening image is at Lamerdin Pontiac, in Compton, CA.
Frontier Pontiac, Fort Worth, TX.
Cavanaugh Pontiac, Bethel, OH.
Wheatley’s Pontiac, Medina, NY.
Cunningham Pontiac, Forrest Hill, NY.
S& S Sales, Pontiac, Iowa Falls, IA.
Ree Motor Sales, Pontiac-Cadillac-GMC, Montevideo, MN.
Bradens Cadillac-Pontiac, Roseville, CA.
A.C. Hine Co. Pontiac, Hartford, CT.
Colonial Pontiac, Louisville, KY.
The nicest car (for me) in this publication is the 2 door Ford Custom 300 with Styletone trim in a light color, for sale in the used lot of A.C. Hine from Hartford, Ct.
Certainly caught my eye as well. (although a GM fan~ But more so an ‘old car’ fan).
Also in CT, so there’s that too.
Oh, I’m not in CT, more like 5445 miles South, in Montevideo, Uruguay. I was referring to the location of the dealer where the Custom was shown. I’m also more a GM fan, but I came back from the hospital in a 4-door ’58 Custom 300, very much alike the one Stephen Pellegrino has, only in total black.
Kind of a desolate, new dealership in Fort Worth — fitting in a single, lonely, ’49 Chieftain.
That’s ok, that’s the car that brought me home on my Birth Day, 4 years later
(and 1,000 mi. away).
Meantime, in Forrest Hills, NY, Cunningham Pontiac had snagged a share of the British Invasion. That showroom had room for a Morris Minor & some MG-TF’s.
(…. or is it “MG’s-TF”?)
Thanks Rich, Great fun !
That Forth Worth dealer looks like it used to be a fast food restaurant. Same architect anyway.
Cunningham Pontiac seems to be more enthused about selling MGs. But that would be par for the course in upscale Forrest Hills, NY.
I keep waiting for photos of someplace I recognize from my childhood but no luck so far. Unfortunately, I have no postcards of my own to nominate.
I was thinking the same. Frontier had enough money for a fancy modernistic building, so they should have expanded it to hold at least 3 cars! Pontiac had a wide range of body types with a choice of 6 or 8. Variety was its main appeal vs Chevy.
A town called “Motevideo”! Who’d a thunk it? “Wheatly’s”, in “Medina,NY”, appears to be housed in a former restaurant, or grocery, store. ((or hardware, store??))
There’s a ‘Mesopotamia’ in rural South Island, New Zealand. Someone had a sense of humour. 🙂
Looks like Lamerdin Pontiac’s building is still in very recognizable condition at 302 North Long Beach Blvd..
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8976631,-118.2081559,3a,62.2y,78.51h,87.02t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sSM1VdlzX_Gy1WXV-odLiTA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D2.9843884193679457%26panoid%3DSM1VdlzX_Gy1WXV-odLiTA%26yaw%3D78.51349984799499!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDcyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
So it is not “Lomerdin” but rather ‘Lamerdin”. I sure hope that Spanish speaking readers (and also Portuguese speakers) don’t recognize the double meaning and start laughing out loud.
I was the General Motors Parts District Manager for the dealership that was once Ree Motor Sales in Montevideo, Minnesota. The dealer became Bittner-Ward Chevrolet Buick in 1978 approximately a year before I was assigned to that territory in the very first year of my career with General Motors. It was a very small business that fell out in the very early 1980’s. Very nice people and a nice little town.
Many of the various used cars have more interest to me .
-Nate
Beaman Pontiac in downtown Nashville kept their red neon Indian head
P
O
N
T
I
A
C
sign on the side of the building until they closed back 3 or 4 years ago. Of course when Pontiac went kapoot in 2009 they changed the lettering to Beaman. By that point everybody had known them for being the big Toyota dealer for decades anyways.
Then the developers offered Lee Beaman an ungodly sum of cash for his 50 acre car dealership downtown. The old Pontiac sign is now attached to the front of their new building in Antioch. They scraped the lot but still no tower on the Beaman Toyota site, at least not yet
Gay Pontiac in Dickinson, Texas, about halfway between Houston and Galveston, was established in 1948 by Carl and Marie Gay. It is known for campaigning some rather successful Pontiac drag racers in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s (because Pontiac) occasionally driven by Carl and Marie’s son Don. It was also one of the first new car franchises in the area to advertise “fixed pricing” as in $XXX over invoice which persuaded many to make the drive from Houston to buy a car there My father and I being two of those.
Marie Gay lived until 2016 passing at the venerable age of 95 years. She was still making commercials for the dealership almost until the end. Anyone who knew her would tell you she was fair and honest but a strong-willed character none-the-less. The dealership still exists selling Buicks and GMC trucks.
The first image is, in keeping with the theme of this thread, the building as it existed though the 1950s. The second image is from the 1960 and that building was present until at least the 1980s. I tried to zoom in on the latter image but the resolution is poor. I believe a see several Pontiacs from the early 1960s (1963 to 1966 perhaps) lined up across the front of the building.
Apparently, the images did not attach with my previous post. This is the original dealership on Texas Highway 3. I’ll post the image of the later dealership in a separate post.
I found a better image of the 1960s building. These look to be 1966 Pontiacs. You also see two of the Gay Pontiac sponsored drag racers from that era.
Imagine that name on a dealership today!
GM brand distributions appear to have been different from those in Canada. Dealers here in that era were signed as either ‘Pontiac Buick GMC’ or ‘Chevrolet Oldsmobile Cadillac’.
A few decades later GM in the US did the same. (It probably took that long for the layers of management to make that decision).
It appears that Cunningham Pontiac was selling MGs and Morris cars as well when this photo was taken.
I enjoy seeing these dealership photos. Attached is Biener Pontiac of Great Neck, Long Island, NY in 1948. The architecture reflects the upscale area of Great Neck. And as they advertised for many years, “Biener is better. Yes, Biener is better. Dollar for dollar, you can’t beat a Biener Pontiac deal.”
My Dad bought a new 1975 GMC Sierra Classic pickup from Lester Goodson Pontiac/GMC in north Houston, July ’75. The building was one of the typical car dealership buildings with the high vaulted ceiling and thin modern looking posts around the edges, in front of the huge glass windows.
We often looked at the new models at Frank Gillman Pontiac/GMC since they were in SW Houston near where we lived, and next door to a Marie Callenders restaurant we ate at frequently. But Gillman had a bad reputation in the Houston area, so we didn’t consider buying from them… until they were the only dealer in the Houston area that had the shop truck we wanted, in 1981. They had a neat looking building, with the main showroom in the middle, with a similar design to Goodson’s, but Gillman had a raised wing on each side, covered, paved and lit up well, to showcase more cars.
Another cool looking Pontiac GMC dealership was Rufus King in Gonzales, Texas….it had a showroom adjacent to the Texaco station! My grandma bought a ’68 Tempest 4 door from them, and our family’s ’70 LeMans 4 door came from there as well. Both were retired driver’s education cars, from the high school, so they were “priced right”. The 68 was an interesting color combo, that I’ve never seen another one of; teal blue top and vinyl interior, and ivory body.
Wow……didn’t recognize Braden’s as such, but scrolling through, I knew it was Roseville without the caption and I never experienced it, Past life? Hahahahaha
Great article about very early Pontiac dealerships!
I’ve been looking for information on one dealership in Freeport,Long Island NY for many many years without any success!!
It is the dealership where my 62 Pontiac Catalina came from. I’ve owned this car 61 years, and have yet to find any info or pictures of it. It
The dealership was called Joseph H Gray Inc and it closed in 1986. It also sold Cadillacs. It is now Paul Conte Cadillac of Freeport
Not a great picture, and it’s 14 years earlier than your Catalina, but here’s an ad from when Joseph H. Gray moved into their new showroom in 1948. They had been located across the street for a few years beforehand. I believe they were at this location until it closed. Hope this helps!