Vintage Snapshots: Parking Lots In The 1970s
– Posted on August 15, 2024
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When the Prices This Season 🎵go up up up and values go down 🎶 Robert Hall is the Answer! 🎵 LOW Overhead! 🎵 So many stores, like the cars shown are long gone. Sears, Woolworth, Marshall Field, et al. That’s life, so the People say. Thanks for sharing this trip down memory lane.
“Robert Hall” got me waxing “nostalgic”, as well.
The green Coronet wagon in the second photo is a dead ringer for my mom’s car.
That top photo is terrific.
Wow, agree 100%.
I was thinking it was like what one might hope the waiting room in heaven would look like.
So many great cars so much variety.
It’s so clean and tidy too like Disneyworld.
This is parking lots like I remember them – mostly American cars, a spattering of AMCs, few pickups and vans, but some of the latter customized. Imports mean mostly VWs and the occasional Japanese mini-truck or Celica. Cutlasses everywhere.
Check out the width of the parking spaces in the top photo. Try parking a large 60s or 70s car today in the downsized spots. Even street parking. Some years ago, a friend parked his 69 Cadillac Fleetwood in Portland Or. and it overlapped in the adjoining spot. Local officer threatened to give him a ticket. He threatened to call in the UAW and make a case Portland was targeting American built cars. No ticket was given.
Picture #4 looks to be the Wheatland Shopping Center near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The center is still standing, though the buildings have been refaced and (obviously) the tenants have changed. Then-and-now comparison below.
Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ehzWTbD1ijdGhjcy5
I’m surprised to see that all the imported cars in the photos are in fact VW Beetles! Not even a single Corolla or 510!
VW set up a nationwide dealer network in the 1950’s and dominated imports until the 1970’s when the Japanese moved eastward from Los Angeles.
What I find interesting is that most of the cars pictured are less than ~10 years old. I doubt you would see that today. Say what you will about today’s cars being soul-less appliances (and I wouldn’t argue with you), they are lasting longer.
That yellow Beetle in the first photo, with what looks like a padded half vinyl top, is priceless. Though the plaid bell bottoms are equally “interesting”. Is that Florida? Also catching my eye in these photos was seeing two Scouts, a Ramcharger and a Suburban. And a red Wagoneer. Who says SUV’s didn’t come along until later?
What’s the car in the first photo to the left of the Wagoneer? Doesn’t look American, but I can’t place it. A Mark 3 Cortina down from Canada?
BMW E12 ???
Not a bad guess. I saw what looked like a droopy butt and wondered if it was an Alfetta sedan. Both came to the US for the 1975 model year which works given the bright red Granada in the front row. I’ve owned both an E12 and an Alfetta sedan, so I should recognize it 😀
The 3rd photo is of Tony’s “Sanitary” Seafood Restaurant/Fish Market in Morehead CIty, NC on the waterfront, definitely a NC landmark. Generations of my family visited Tony’s annually as part of our beach vacations for decades (starting in the 1940’s) with parents, and we’re still going there. How I loved looking up at that neon sign as twilight fell, listening (with anticipation) for the loudspeaker announcing that our table was ready.
THANKS for posting this, a vivid summary memory for me.
If you look real close the Monte Carlo in the second picture has a CB antenna on the deck lid. I like the Ford LTD in the first picture and the green Cutlass in the last one.
The “Mustang II”, at the amusement park, also has a “CB antenna”.
One would think the full size wagon would make a comeback, seeing how everyone drives full size 4 door v8 trucks with a canopy now, which are really just a full size wagon with big tires.
Commenting on that top photo… the color is great in that shot. Paul’s right to describe it as “terrific”.
Jason W. comments on the width of the parking spaces in that one. I personally wished that spaces were still this big. I can’t stand door dings on my cars and go out of my way to park away from everyone else. You didn’t have to do this back then. The ‘71 LTD demonstrates this perfectly. That large car looks practically small in that space. He’s not even centered in the space and yet poses no threat. Of course, herringbone spaces are always better for protecting one’s doors anyway. My own ‘73 LTD back then, with its two very long doors, was much easier to enter and exit in herringbone spaces like this. It’s scary to think of how she’d fit into today’s tiny spaces.
And the last thing I’ll note in that lede photo: The bright red Granda looks like it just came from the showroom!
One reason for those wide parking spaces was that every other car on the road back then was a two door with big long heavy doors.
The blue “Malibu” looks ,curiously, faded.
Two Cutlasses for the price of one in the last photo. Reminds me how plentiful those were back then.
One green with a green vinyl roof, the other white with the same green landau vinyl top. I think I like the all green one better, the pinstriping really pops on that one.
Both look like ’76 or ’77s.
Wasn’t the parking lot of the lead image featured in a previous parking lot collection… one from the mid- 1950’s? I’m recalling mostly the “lay-of-the-land” with nearly every parking spot occupied. It seems like it was Busch Gardens or another primary (of the era) tourist attraction.
You may be taking of this one in Cypress Gardens Florida
https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/892738_1000.jpg?ssl=1
Wow – reminders why I couldn’t wait for CAD/CAM designing the new 1980 cars.
Unbelievable how fast the 60s and older cars seem to have disappeared from the streetscape.
The vehicle that jumped out at me in the first photo was the Datsun truck – it seemed to me symbolic of the changing of the guard, as the Japanese took over from VW; and then I spotted the Beetle next to it – and then three more Beetles in the background. All right, perhaps Japanese vehicles were, in fact, underrepresented in this photo.
I’m guessing the photo is c. 1975/76.
That’s not a Datsun, it’s a Chevy LUV (Isuzu).
Thanks! We didn’t have them here in western Canada, so I assumed it was a Datsun (being obviously not a Mazda or Toyota).
It was always good to see Barry Newman as lawyer Tony Petrocelli, practicing in San Remo, Arizona, enjoying an occasional round of golf. (lead photo)
Short-lived series, but I really enjoyed it as a kid. His powder blue Chev pickup, always played a prominent role in most episodes.
It is a GMC pickup, not a Chev, in the lead photo. And this pic does appear to have had its saturation bumped. The fourth from last pic, could perhaps use a saturation increase.
Mid ’70’s era Ramcharger in the second pic, was a relatively rare sighting. At least in Southeastern Ontario.
We have finally found the Home of Radial Tires.
It’s also a “vibration correction center!”
Love the first picture! Lots going on: dig those plaid pants on those folks leaning on the 71′ LTD! 72 Impala sport coupe right beside them- slightly different roof line than the more common Custom Coupe. What’s going on with the yellow Beatle a few rows back- looks like it has a black landau half roof!
Wow, just fantastic pictures here .
-Nate
That first photo has so much going on. In the lower right, next to the red Granada, I can identify the car with only its tail showing as a 1967 Chevy Bel Air, maybe in the same Tahoe Turquoise ours was painted back in the day. You can just barely make out the “Bel Air” nameplate. Only the Bel Air that year had the side molding at mid height on the body.
Not only that, but the ‘67 was another weird anomaly regarding its taillights.
The ‘67, and the ‘72, IIRC, were the rare cases where the Bel Air had three taillights on each side, just like the Impala.
And speaking of the ‘72 Impala, I believe that’s one parked to the left of the ‘71 LTD.
Yes, that’s correct on the taillights. Our ’67 definitely had 3 per side. Interestingly, the brochure on the full-size line shows only 2 taillights per side, like the Biscayne.
Another anomaly I noticed on 1967 full size Chevrolet lights are the points on the front fenders that match up to the grill. Did only the higher trim levels have lights here?
I forget the official term for those lights; they came on with the headlights (they weren’t cornering lights). They were optional on the Impala, SS, and Bel Air (possibly on the Biscayne as well). I believe they were standard on the Caprice.
’73-’77 Monte Carlos and Cutlasses were everywhere
Great pictures Rich, as all of your posts are. I have a 1965 edition of my Driver’s Education textbook, “Sportsmanlike Driving”, published by the American Automobile Association. The pictures in the book are very similar to yours of what life was like in America in the early ’60’s, a life long gone and sorely missed by me. The only problem is I can never find out where the photos in my textbook were taken as the Photo Credits only list them as courtesy of The Bureau of Public Roads, the American Road Builder or a photographer’s name.
First thing I notice is the lack of black, white and grey cars.
So much boring monochrome these days.
Ahhh… no crossovers. That’s refreshing.