Village Chevrolet Company, Queens Village, Long Island, NY.
Tremont Chevrolet, Bronx, NY.
Meyer Chevrolet, St. Louis, MO.
Bast Chevrolet, Seaford, Long Island, NY.
Gilmore Down River Chevrolet, Wyandotte, MI.
Sullivan Chevrolet, Roselle Park, NJ.
Bill Janes Chevrolet Inc., St. Louis, MO.
I love these little dealers with the cars parked out front. Reminds me of the last two old school dealers in Iowa City, the Ford dealer and the Mercury one right across the street, with the same owner. Old brick buildings.
Meyer Chevrolet’s angular modern front look like it was a remodel that cut away the original corner of the building.
Our Chef dealer was Marsden Chevrolet on York Rd. and we went there for the new model announcement most Falls as Dad had ’53 and ’56 Chevy 4 dr sedans. The ’58s were a revelation, so different and with the new quad headlights they instantly made older cars look obsolete, a marketing stroke of genius by the industry (Chrysler had some in ’57). I can still remember clearly seeing the full spread ad in the Baltimore Evening Sun with all 5 of the GM makes, it blew this 8 yr old car nut totally away! Marsden had a white Corvette and red Impala convertible in the showroom that Fall. Some years alter our Driver’s Ed car at THS was a dark turquoise 4 dr Bel Air sedan from Marsden, supervised by Mr Adkins, a man with nerves of steel! lol
Chev, ‘scuse me.
Marsden was right next door to Stu Berger Olds, Dad never took me there, but it became my favorite in Fall ’65 when they had a dark burgundy Toronado on the showroom floor…Zounds!
When we lived in Bennettsville SC, 1966-1970 our Chevrolet dealer was named “Homer Baucom Chevrolet” Yes, a real name, his daughter was in my HS class and was beautiful. Of course, I believe she drove a new Camaro to class.
Always like seeing these old photos. The dealership ones are a special treat! The two in a row featuring ‘63 Chevys reminded me of my dad’s white with red interior Impala sport coupe. (The inspiration for my screen name.)
Great images!
The Meyer Chevrolet building in St. Louis is still standing, but clearly it’s seen better days (below). The Meyer family sold the business in 1965 – Mr. Meyer was 87 years old at the time and had been in the business for 35 years. The dealership was called Merollis Chevrolet after the sale, and remained at this location until the late 1970s.
We went to look at Chevys in 1956.
They had a leftover Corvette with the high fins. The fins were at my eye level and I thought they looked stupid.
They told my Dad they could sell him that for the same price as a new 210 power pack powerglide (about $3,000).
Tremont Chevrolet in the The Bronx lasted until the early 1970s, though the building remained a Chevrolet dealership until about 1990. The building is still standing, being used as a scaffolding company now, and the 1980s-era Chevrolet sign structure is still there, just advertising for Colgate Scaffolding instead.
The street looks different now because the roadway was elevated sometime between then and now.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/fiRzW7tiVKeY4DTp8
Bast Chevrolet has two interesting cars on its forecourt – a Studebaker Lark and an English Ford.
It’s hard to imagine there was much of a market for a side-valve Ford Prefect 100E in Long Island.
Buck ;
You had to have been there in the late 1950’s when everyone simply _had_ to ‘buy an import !’ .
New England was chock a block with imports and Ford Prefects, Anglias, Hillmans and more were every where for three maybe four years when they all suddenly became orphans, near impossible t get parts and not working very well apart from those very few who loved ‘LBC’s’ and knew how to keep them reliable until they mostly rusted out in 5 or 6 years .
-Nate
I loved the appearance of automotive dealerships in the 1950’s and 60’s; they were all quite individual in appearance, now the corporate design philosophy has taken over and stand alone dealerships that sold one brand of cars seems to be fading.
“St Louis”, being a fairly large town; seems there must surely be a bit more to “Bil Janes, Chevrolet”. Looks rather “bijou”, in that pic.
These dealers had different ideas about presentation. Some tried to offer the customer maximum variety up front, like the Prefect and Lark and ’59, with Fords and Plymouths also visible. Others preferred endless identical rows of new Chevys. Any size you want as long as it’s too low for comfort and too wide for your garage! By ’65 a row of new Chevys also had variety, as seen at Bill Janes.
Being Long Island dealerships, I would image the winter road salt ate up these cars within a few years.
My oldest brother’s first car was a ’58 Chevy Impala. The floor board in the back seat was rotted to the point you could see the road below. God forbid if he hit a puddle for I would have to raise my feet if sitting in the back. Dad helped him install some sheet metal to cover the holes. At least the engine ran well!!
In our village of Fleetwood Pennsylvania there was a Chevrolet dealer there since the 1930s and he had a wooden showroom floor that fit one car. In the early 1970s he sat one new Chevrolet in there, and one on the wide sidewalk outside the big windows. At the end of the short street he had a lot for maybe twenty used and new inventory and it was lit with a string of dangling light bulbs. No one ever broke the lights but it was beside a church so God was watching!? Quaint village life. Dealer was told to expand and move to the main road or lose his Chevrolet dealership. He quit.
3 speed, living in Mn. same thing with body rot from salt. Especially the ’70s cars. Door bottoms rusting art the bottoms so you could literally pull the skins off.
There was a ’69 Wildcat for sale at a Buick dealer in the 80s. They thought it was a real treasure, asking $8k. I looked underneath, a practice you learn here, to see fresh undercoating. A peel back of the trunk mat revealed the floor holes on both sides.
Growing up on N. Mn., I was used to small town dealers.
One was a Chev- Buick dealer in the next town a mile from mine. Used to be there almost
every day in summer and always looked forward to doughnuts and coffee with the new show in September. They had an alignment rack where they also road force balanced tires.
Well, the owners wife had expensive taste to the point where he started dipping into the employee retirement accounts. When the walls started closing in, they found him hanging in the shop. Sad story.
My dad was company secretary at a Chevy shop but they were Chevrolet Vauxhall Bedford agents then Holden in 66 when Chevy assembly was known to be stopping, no more Chevys untill some lost South african bound cars showed up in the 70s minus the South African badging, they were not Constantias, 350/350 12 bolt powertrains no thong slappers in those cars, they were popular but are mostly gone away now.
I like seeing these dealer lots in color. The 1950s were the age of color selections, and then it started down hill. Of course there have always been exceptions but color choices became less and less.
But on the upside, I have started to see some more vibrant color choices from the imports in the last few years. Just want more interior colors choices.
These Chevrolet dealership photos bring back the memories. Grandpa and Grandma bought matching beige Chevrolets new in 1965 from Fanning Chevrolet in Gresham, OR: his was a C10 pickup and hers a Biscayne. A couple years later Dad ordered a new 1967 Camaro from the same dealership. It was our family car and I practically grew up in it. The C10 and Biscayne were both totaled but the Camaro lives on. It’s in Dad’s garage right now. Now that spring is here it’s time to get it out and go for a ride!
What color is the “Camaro”?
What a selection of noastalgic photos! They send me back to those wonderful years!
I’m feeling so emotional!
Thank you Rich🙂! I always love your posts!
I grew up in Queens Village, and would ride my bike to Village Chevrolet, and sneak into the storage area behind the dealer to see the new models that were delivered, and hidden from the public until intro time..
My Uncle bought a couple of Chevrolets there. A white 1960 Impala hardtop, and a bronze 1966 Corvair. Great photos.
WOW!
I was thinking about the neighborhood where Meyer Chevrolet was just this morning. Another long time dealership, Ray Rixman Dodge was across the street.
Sadly, that once thriving neighborhood has been slowly dying for the past 50+ years.
Bill James Chevrolet was always a smaller dealership.
I count 6 other Chevrolet dealers within 2 miles or less when this photo was taken.
Now there is only 1 Chevy dealer in the city of St. Louis.
The rest have fled to the suburbs.