What uses are there for an old automobile dealership building? Sure another dealer could make use of it but there are times that simply may not be practicable.
A few years ago, upon returning from the CC Meet-up in Nashville, Tennessee, I drove around my birthplace of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, capturing how the various dealerships of my formative years of the 1980s looked like in June 2016. Let’s take a trip.
Since the current Cadillac-Buick-GMC dealership is shown at the top, let’s start there. However, things aren’t so easily sliced and diced. This building was the prior Buick dealership building for years, the standalone Van Matre Buick. The Van Matre name remains but they have obviously taken on Cadillac and GMC at some point while at their current location.
Looking at the old building from a less penitentiary looking angle, it has been converted into a family counseling facility. The advantage here is this building is next door to the Cape Girardeau Police Department so juvenile delinquents, and other miscreants, don’t have far to go.
This is the old Chevrolet dealership building. My maternal grandparents bought their 1977 Chevrolet Impala from here when it was known as Jim Bishop Chevrolet. They also purchased my uncles 1976 Monte Carlo from here and likely their 1979 Chevrolet Scottsdale pickup came from here, also.
Later, the dealership name would change to Coad Chevrolet. Their advertisements featured co-owner Tim Coad, a young and animated gentleman, who talked about the “Coad of the Road”. That’s a pretty good name for an advertising tag line.
A flash flood in 1986 flooded this building and ruined their entire inventory of cars and pickups. This building sits directly across US 61 from the current Buick-Cadillac-GMC dealership.
Also sitting across US 61 from the old Chevrolet dealership, and two doors down from the Buick-Cadillac dealer is the current Kia dealer. In 1990 this was Town & Country Motors Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge.
It was from here my paternal grandmother purchased her 1989 Dodge Aries. When she purchased the car in 1990, I was 17 and accompanied her to take delivery. It was in this building we were subjected to the 20-something Miami Vice wannabe salesman with the horrific mustache and his sales pitch about extended warranties. He was ready to choke me as I walked out after flippantly rebuffing the heavy-handed tactics he was using on a stupid appearing teenage boy and his sporadically naive gray-haired grandmother.
I still chuckle about it.
The previous building was the second location of Town & Country Motors. This is their prior location and this is where my parents purchased their 1983 Plymouth Reliant.
This building had to really suck for being a car dealer. The amount of outdoor parking is still the same piddly amount as it was thirty-five years ago; no wonder they had so many cars parked in the showroom. After the Chrysler dealer relocated this building became a furniture store. My wife and I purchased a mattress and box springs from this building soon after we married in 1998.
It appears to have underwent another transformation since then.
Sometimes these old car dealership buildings maintain a similar purpose. Such is the case here with the old Cape GMC-Pontiac dealership.
Having left the area in 2001 I’m not sure at what point in time Cape GMC-Pontiac ultimately folded up. If I had to guess it would be toward the end of Pontiac’s tenure. We need to remember General Motors is still a force to be reckoned with in the Midwest and it wasn’t that long ago a person couldn’t sling a dead cat without hitting a Pontiac Grand Am.
It’s still a dealership, but of a different variety, as evidenced by these service vans found for sale.
Down the street is the old Cape Toyota building. It was at this building in 1985 where my father foisted off his 1970 Ford F-100 in exchange for a 1984 Ford F-150 that had a mere 2,200 miles. The undercarriage on the ’70 was so rotted the body had fallen onto the frame and dad had shimmed it with a few 2 x 4s. The exterior didn’t look too bad and nobody ever noticed his handiwork prior to the papers being signed.
For those who think the dealer was doing a brisk business at this time, you could be right. But the business, at that time, appeared to be primarily in used cars as their used inventory outnumbered the new inventory by a sizable factor. At the time dad bought the pickup there was a 1939 Buick Special sitting in the showroom next to a new Toyota MR2. Talk about vast differences.
This building is now a cosmetology school.
Of course there was a Honda dealer, which is now a bicycle shop.
Let’s be honest for a second. Some surnames don’t play well with professions. When I lived in St. Joseph, there was a doctor named Bonebraker. It is not a harmonious relationship, similar to, say, a pest control guy named Roach. This dealer was Weiser Honda, pronounced “wheezer”.
The name at the new location is Cape Girardeau Honda.
While I have skipped the Oldsmobile, Mazda, Volkswagen, Porsche, and Ford dealers (the Ford dealer is in a bad spot to get pictures and I was driving my ’63 Ford around to take these, so it’s not like I’ve totally ignored the Blue Oval), here’s a bonus of sorts. It’s been three years since I took these pictures, and Studebaker went belly-up long before I was born, so I’ve had to verify this being the old Studebaker dealer.
This building is located at Sprigg Street and Morgan Oak, not far from the Mississippi River, and I’ve driven by this building countless times.
Yep, I was right, it’s an old Studebaker dealer. The Studebaker information website shows there having been three or four different Studebaker dealerships in Cape over time, with this ad being from 1944.
Why don’t you go in for a spring service? The door is open.
In researching this I also stumbled upon this picture which shows a piece of the later Weiss Studebaker dealership building, on the left above the 1949 Ford, in 1956. Don’t confuse Hutson with Hudson, another independent brand; the Hutson building seen here is a furniture store.
One of the other Studebaker locations was along Broadway, but I’ll confess to this being Independence Street. That would be a much better street name for a Studebaker dealer.
I hope you enjoyed taking a brief tour of some of the old auto dealerships in my birthplace. What old dealerships do you still have around your home?
Once upon a time a big, fancy dealership was built on a nearby rural interstate. Even though they sold Fords — the trucks are real popular around here — the dealer went out of business. Since then the facility has gone through a succession of other types of businesses, such as a furniture warehouse and even a marijuana showroom. No one has lasted much longer than a few years. In addition, the facility is so large that it never quite looks filled up.
In retrospect, sticking a big dealership in the middle of nowhere might not have been such a great idea. I imagine that someone took a bath on that development.
Is there even such a thing as a standalone Buick or GMC store anymore?
Yes. A good number of them here in Iowa. I’ve been perusing a few in hopes of seeing a Regal Tour-X…
Great subject matter. My family having been in the new car business since well before I was born and always being aware of the dealerships in the area past and present, I like to stay on top of old dealership properties and what has become of them. I must say it is disheartening to see the individuality of dealership design disappear as well as the names of dealer owners disappear from signage on these buildings and replaced by town names. Dealership personalities are slowly fading away in favor of cookie-cutter new car outlets. blah!
That’s an interesting point. Dealers have become a lot like McDonald’s outlets — they all pretty much look the same wherever you go.
The conventional wisdom seems to be that this helps branding. I suppose in a way it does, but I wonder if something more is lost. Wouldn’t customers be more likely to show loyalty to a dealer that has an individual personality grounded in a community’s unique culture?
Imagine: An automotive brand decides to differentiate itself from the competition by emphasizing local creative autonomy in dealership design. That strategy might most benefit a smaller player such as Subaru, Mazda or Volvo.
Very true, the problem is that’s the corporate culture is do it my way or the highway. They all want you to know that when you go to the Chevy dealer it’s going to have their big logo on the front have stainless steel on the sides and lots of glass personally I would prefer 2/2 Mall comfortable rooms to do you negotiating that aren’t old glass may be selfish and nice comfortable chairs and probably a showroom they could hold 20 or 30 cars indoors because of all places Florida is extremely hot and you really don’t want to go outside looking at cars
We used to have a BMW motorcycle showroom in town that’s now a hot tub store. In fact, there are no more MC dealerships left here; in the past we had all the Japanese companies plus Harley (briefly paired with Aprilia), Ducati, Moto Guzzi, BMW. The last to go was the KTM/Husqvarna shop, now selling only e-bikes. The Harley store is now a restaurant and the Ducati/Guzzi shop is a marijuana dispensary. And, all the GM stores are gone, Mazda and Kia/Hyundai disappeared quite recently; all that’s left is Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Dodge/Jeep/Ram/VW, Honda and Subaru.
My first professional job was in a converted DeSoto dealership.
While not a dealer, the former General Motors training center here in Tigard, OR is now a school. The former Chevrolet dealer, also in Tigard (Knauss Chevrolet) is now a lemon orchard, oops I mean a used car lot. The World of Speed museum, in Wilsonville, OR, was a former Mopar dealer. (The place has a killer shop!)
Thank you for the info since I live in Tualatin. Now I know where to not buy a vehicle.
Great article Jason. You, Jim and and JP have produced some really interesting topics since taking over the reigns at CC. It’s always a challenge to re-purpose a business with as large a footprint as a dealership. Locals will always remember its original intended purpose. The large lot often making the new business appear under patronized.
In the town I grew up in, a General Motors Canada dealership from the 1950s, with classic art deco detailing, was converted to a fitness centre and bowling alley. A nice preservation.
This former Chev Olds Buick dealership is located on Wilson Street in Perth, Ontario. https://www.perth.ca/en/index.aspx
Thanks. We’ve got a few more unusual bits in the hopper awaiting their turn to run. Stay tuned.
Please people, name the towns and state so the rest of us know where you are talking about. Thank you.
I like for my experience to be universal. From my perspective as the author, I don’t care whether anyone else knows where it was.
I used to live in Mena, Arkansas and their Studebaker dealership that has been converted into an old car museum. I lived close by, but it was never open. Look at that Avanti!
An article about that dealership from the Studebaker information website
I walked past this Studebaker dealership on Grand Avenue In St. Paul this summer. Now divided up into a coffee place, a woodfired pizza place and a gift shop. And of course with the future parked out front!
Beautifully done!
In a strange reverse of a former dealership being re-branded by a new business, the opposite happened to a familiar property in my current city.
Many Americans will remember the famous ‘Red Barn’ hamburger franchise from the 1960s and 70s. And their distinctive barn-shaped restaurants. Well, a local former Red Barn that originally closed in the early 1970s eventually became the service centre for a local Mercedes dealer. And immediately afterwards a BMW dealer. I absolutely love the juxtaposition of the rural themed architecture and the upscale European products they are selling. 🙂 The service technicians should have worn denim coveralls.
There’s a web site about old Red Barns, and how they are being re-used. One shown is now a dealership, albeit motorcycles not cars. The one I remember in San Jose still serves burgers, though under the Burger Barn name.
http://www.barnbuster.net/barnsgonebye12.html
That is awesome. Thank you! Looking back, I’m sure many new owners/tenants acquiring former Red Barn locations were none too thrilled to have their businesses so closely associated with a defunct burger joint. The clear agricultural theme of the structure must have been a hard sell at times. I’m actually surprised Starbucks would allow their branding on such a building.
I notice some major brands are quite lax removing their branding from closed locations.
That’s an odd one. I can envision a former Red Barn being repurposed into a used car dealer, but a Mercedes dealer?? I never would have thought. I’m surprised that brands like Mercedes and BMW don’t have more stringent standards about their franchise dealers’ buildings.
And also, somehow I always assumed that Red Barn was a local chain — never knew it had such a broad reach. My local (former) Red Barn is now a pizza place, which seems fitting.
This is in Ottawa. I remember Red Barns in Toronto as well. Ponderosa Steak Houses were in Canada as well.
I fully concur about being surprised MB and BMW allowing this. I suspect the franchises had the same owner. As the signage on the windows is handled similarly.
I have a theory. This location was originally converted to automotive sales/service use by a Hyundai dealer. So, it was already set up for the next dealer. Plus, this service location is very close by to the actual respective MB and BMW dealerships. This may have been enough to convince the manufacturers to accept these locations? Though I would have required the dealers to obscure (and improve upon) the existing primative building design. Plus better landscaping and general appearance.
This is an early 70s image of this actual Red Barn. It was located across from a large cemetery.
No problem! Done. I don’t know why this one kept going to Trash, but thanks for letting us know.
There was a Ford dealership on Metairie Road which is in a suburb of New Orleans. I remember going car shopping with Mom & Dad at this location in 1964 at the age of 6 years old. I kept looking at the Thunderbirds while my parents were looking at the Galaxie wagons (six kids and one on the way). Immediately behind the property was the Do Drive-In theater with dual screens.
Needless to say, both the dealership and drive in were eventually plowed over to make room for a gated townhouse development. However, each time I pass the property, I’m always reminded of the ’64 T-Bird with the sequential turn signals.
Interesting twist of the CC Effect. Just Friday I was at the old Hyatt Buick dealership that is now an auction house. The former new car showroom still has the pebble and epoxy floor with the dealership name and Tri-Shield made out of different colored pebbles. It may or may not be visible at any given time though depending on what inventory they have as the showroom is where they typically put furniture or other big items. The former shop area though is filled with shelves for inventory. The front line is still in use for vehicles they take on consignment while the rest of the parking lot is where they put the really big items like skids of lumber.
The other one that immediately comes to mind is an old Isuzu dealership that is now a weed store. It is funny that is what saved the building, or at least the owner of the building. He had it up for sale for years and it was still listed for sale when it was leased to the store and after a couple of months they finally took it off the market. It really was too tiny for a dealership but it had been paired with the adjacent Ford dealer so much of their inventory was actually across the river at the Ford lot.
South Tacoma Way, in Tacoma is also lined with too many former car dealership buildings that have been repurposed in various ways.
I was excited about the topic when reading the headline, but disappointed at the content – most of the buildings documented come from the post-war era of disposable buildings along auto-fuelled highways…to rectify that, here’s an example from when vehicles were still sold from pedestrian-oriented locations contributing to downtowns…
And another…
…and another…
That’s in Greenville Texas.
This building in Middletown, CT used to be a Buick Dealership. The historic photo of its use as a dealership is inside the restaurant on the way to the bathrooms
A former Ford Model T factory in Atlanta along the Beltline by Ponce City Market, finding reuse as a residential building.
The main street view of the Ford Atlanta plant (from Wikipedia)
Along those lines here is a shot of the original location of the Mueller-Harkins Buick franchise, where they earned enough money to build the state of the art center I linked above. This was auto row in its day with Dodge and Ford next door as well as Cleavland-Chandler dealer.
http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/searchterm/Mueller-Harkins%20Motor%20Co.%20(Tacoma)/mode/exact/page/1
And those buildings today.
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.2567114,-122.4408803,3a,75y,300.66h,98.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTBg-4d45g-UWns7E1_fyBg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
How about the Titus Ford dealer in Tacoma
http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p17061coll21/id/24807/rec/8
The Titus family took on a partner or merged and are still selling new Fords as Titus-Will, but recently turned their historic dealership into an all makes tire and service center.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/618+Broadway,+Tacoma,+WA+98402/@47.2583046,-122.4415234,3a,75y,269.82h,93.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1soSQZXYRpXhAXckfhQZ91ig!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x549055a6dfe3848f:0x144516d7de81296e!8m2!3d47.2582013!4d-122.4418106
If you are dissatisfied with content do you need a refund of your subscription?
Here’s an interesting, urbanizing reuse of a 50’s-60’s neighborhood icon in Arlington, VA….(first the original)
And the reuse (on the same site and location, at the busy intersection of Glebe and Wilson)
Amazing! They incorporated the old building into the new one. Whoever at Accenture signed off on the design deserves a gold star!
KAP Incorporated Olds/Buick/GMC in Park River, North Dakota became a pharmacy and family practice clinic started by a local physician. It was also the pharmacy and clinic I went to when I lived there. Always drove my KAP-purchased ’71 Electra 225 there whenever I had an appointment because I appreciated the connection…plus it soothed my iatrophobia a bit as I considered it to be going in for a tune-up, so to speak!
I forgot to mention one of my favorite former new car dealerships buildings. It was originally Muller-Harkins Buick. Partially because it was such an over the top building that has survived mostly intact.
http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p17061coll21/id/30050/rec/2
Today it is still an automobile dealership but they specialize in classics and hot rods.
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.2585084,-122.4432805,3a,75y,16.64h,81.78t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sxFJdizWx2xGs1fHr6KYYkg!2e0!5s20190501T000000!7i16384!8i8192
The circular glass area near the corner still has its turntable, don’t know if it still works or not, but they do still display a car on it.
One of the best shots from when it was new.
http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p17061coll21/id/20022/rec/11
Likely one of the first cars to sit on the turntable.
http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p17061coll21/id/21484/rec/13
This gives a glimpse of just how elaborate this building was.
http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p17061coll21/id/29912/rec/25
The structure of the ceiling in the interior shot of the counter makes it appear that they stored cars on the roof. Its a really nice building – glad it survived!
Yes take a look at the model of it.
http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p17061coll21/id/12655/rec/34
Ok one last one of the service center.
http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p17061coll21/id/13396/rec/83
And a link to all the Mueller-Harkins
http://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/searchterm/Mueller-Harkins%20Motor%20Co.%20(Tacoma)/mode/exact/page/1
Including some great models of it before construction.
Hagin & Koplin Ford, 380 Elizabeth Ave., Newark NJ. Replaced with Route 78 overpass. Note location of manhole cover. Incredible, isn’t it?
https://www.google.com/maps/place/380+Elizabeth+Ave,+Newark,+NJ+07112/@40.7101191,-74.1970065,3a,75y,338.94h,94.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssX_5if7JlUHk7tDTNxafyQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c253218fbc8c8b:0x3082f569f845669c!8m2!3d40.7105461!4d-74.1962324
That looks like a screenshot straight out of American Graffiti.
We’ve lost some many of these gems in NJ. Top of my list is Reilly Oldsmobile on Westfield. Built in the later 40’s. It featured a huge wrap around front glass showroom and neon rocket next to the service entrance. Plowed over for a cookie cutter bank building when Olds went out and the owner died at nearly 90 years old
Reminds me of Novo Motors (Chrysler dealer) in Morristown NJ. Was there for decades; closed up in early 2000s. Really quaint up to the end–no air conditioning, a grandfather clock in the showroom, lots of 50s-70s display signs and framed pictures hanging up. They gave me a Chrysler Imperial dealer sign when they cleaned out. At least the building is still there, which now houses a Capital One bank.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7929821,-74.4770858,3a,39.3y,234.84h,89.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXXiiCSrSX81TXjncAePMEA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
My first thought on auto dealership building reuse was it would seem to be very limited because of the expansive glass used for the showroom. For starters, the HVAC utility bills must be astronomical.
But, then, I began thinking about other products that compare to the large size of vehicles, and mattress, furniture, and appliance stores sprang to mind, with the service department area being used as a warehouse. So there are certainly big-ticket items besides vehicles that could be sold in a converted auto dealership.
One last image from my architectural slide library. I believe this image is of “Dealers Row” in Oklahoma City, which is being revitalized into neighborhood serving bars, restaurants and retail.
A similar revitalization has occurred over the past 10-15 years with the old 1930’s era dealership buildings along 14th street in Washington DC…
Whatever happened to Max Hoffmam’s showroom in New York?
The Ensemble Theater in Houston is a former Mercury dealership that opened in the late 1940’s. The theater company moved into the building in the early 1990’s after it sat vacant for decades.
This is from the theater web site. “The Mission of The Ensemble Theater is to preserve African American artistic expression and enlighten, entertain and enrich a diverse community.” It’s programs and shows are outstanding.
Have you been up North Shepherd lately? What used to host dozens and dozens of BHPH cozy lots is pretty much wiped away with gentrification as the area continues to transform.
I bought a little bungalow in the area in the late 80’s; firesale price since the area was still coming out of the ‘70s hitting rock bottom. I sold in 2002 when we moved to the burbs; what that little bungalow is worth now is jaw dropping.
Do you remember Hub Buick on Kirby in River Oaks? No way a dealership could afford that real estate these days….
Next to Hub Buick (named for it’s primary owner Hub Fossier, former general manager of Al Parker Buick) was Dominion Volvo.
Further down Kirby Drive Helfman’s River Oaks Chrysler/Dodge/Ram/Jeep still does a brisk business as witnessed by the great number of River Oaks license plate frames I see on vehicles around the city – primarily Jeep Grand Cherokees and Jeep Renegades.
I love this topic. I have thought about doing something similar in Indianapolis. I have bought plumbing parts in an old downtown Ford dealer building from the days of the Model T and there is an entire dealer row I shopped at in the 80s that has not one single dealer left.
Studebaker dealers were an interesting lot, there were quite a few that were basically service stations. And others that were more traditional with big showrooms and flashy signs.
I am also reminded of a case I was involved in years back. A kid got injured when he rammed into a big old plate glass window in a small town building. I was researching the buildings history (and building codes that applied) and learned that it had been an old Nash dealership. And was built before any codes required safety glass of any kind.
I was thinking the same thing. Indy has so many former dealership and manufacturing buildings it would be quite the task to research and document them, but probably worth it.
Not in the midwest, but might be of interest…
https://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2012/05/17/san-franciscos-auto-row-then-and-now/#photo-98795
The “Rib and Chop House” is a small chain of generally very good restaurants, mostly in Wyoming and Montana. In my town of Cheyenne it is located in the Dinneen building downtown. That was a historic dealership location (built in 1927) at Carey and Lincolnway. It was home to many brands over the years but the last iteration was Lincoln/Mercury/Mazda. Second floor is now offices; back then it was the body shop.
Another (though newer – ’40s/’50s) building served Dinneen Buick/Pontiac. It has been heavily modified and modernized and is now the Cheyenne Police Department.
Powell’s Books at 10th and Burnside in Portland is the largest independent new/used bookstore in the world, with 1.6 acres of bookshelves. It’s in the building that for decades was…
… Wentworth & Irwin Nash, later on Wentworth & Irwin AMC. There’s a spot in Powell’s where you can see a painted sign for “Parts Dept.” on a concrete ceiling beam.
I kept waiting to see a repurposed dealership from The Great (and oh, so brief) Hummer Epoch. Ours got taken over by what appears to be an eyeglasses place – that architecture is sure hard to hide.
Ours is now selling Cadillacs. Hummer to Escalade is not that big of a jump, I suppose.
At one time this stretch of Portland’s Burnside St. was the local “auto row”. Now besides Powell’s there are restaurants, brewpubs and upscale stores in the old auto buildings, now called the Pearl District. (Portland city archives picture vis The Old Motor.)
Along the lines of Daniel M’s former Red Barn restaurant above, here in Fairfax, Virginia we have the opposite case of an older building being recycled INTO a car dealership. Our Toyota dealership uses a 1930s-era theater building that was repurposed to be a car dealership decades ago.
The building was once called the Fairfax Theater, and it was (obviously) one of the main theaters in Northern Virginia. Eventually it was closed, abandoned, and then turned into a car dealership. The dealership grew and grew around the original theater building.
In the aerial image below, you can see the original building sticking out of the roof of the larger new building/parking garage (the structure with the six smaller windows on the second floor facing the street). From street level, you would never know it was there.
This is now the service facility for the Toyota dealership… the dealer built a newer showroom-only facility a block down the street.
That’s funny since we have a Toyota Dealership in an old Safeway locally.
In the 1800s, mansions like this lined S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago. Then in the 1920s-30s, they were pulled down to make room for car dealerships. Now these Art Deco dealerships with names like MARMON and HUDSON on the facades are either being demolished or renovated into loft apartments.
What seems so permanent vanishes into thin air. . .
There are two old downtown small town former dealerships in the town where I grew up.
This small, probably 1930s showroom was the former home of Randy Marion Chevrolet. They moved to newer, much larger digs out by the freeway in the early 1990s.
Whoops, forgot the photo.
That shop on the left was their service center. Back in the 1990s I remember it being a European car specialist. Now it’s a Honda/Acura specialist.
The showroom appears to be currently vacant and under renovation.
And this one was Mooresville Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, a block up the street from the Chevy dealer. They were at this location longer that than their competitor — I remember my dad test driving a used Sable there when my sister became old enough to drive, which would have been 1999. But they too moved to a new location closer to the freeway in the early 2000s.
The showroom now houses a charity thrift store.
At the intersection of I-25 and the Denver-Boulder Turnpike was a large Toyota dealer which was repurposed into an entertainment complex, complete with a go-cart track on the roof:
Downtown Denver, 11th & Broadway, Franklin/Studebaker dealer now a furniture store:
I am betting that most old car dealership buildings that are still car dealerships, have had to get major renovations to comply with new corporate standards.
As far as old car dealership buildings that became something else, not so much around here. Any property of value is scooped up and converted to condos.
Not exactly on topic, but occasionally I see mashup photos to show old and new in the same frame. Here’s one with an old gas station contrasted with modernity. That gas station, and the prices, are long gone.
Very cool topic Jason, and I enjoyed the content so will renew my subscription.
Somehow I would have though that SEMO would still have a GM dealer every half mile, but I guess not. The 2009 recession cleared out a lot of them here as well.
My Dad and I used to go “car shopping” on Sundays when I was a small child, he would check out the front lot stock and I would go see what older cars I could find out back. The attached photo is what I think used to be Mid Town AMC, where Dad bought several Ramblers. It closed soon after Chrysler took over AMC, and has had varied occupants since. Generally unsuccessful I might add 🙁
Oh, good! Since you’ve enjoyed our content I’ve bumped your subscription up to three years for no additional charge.:)
That’s a nice looking building but having a laundry is never a good sign of a vibrant and growing business. However if those are apartments upstairs (judging from the row of window a/c units) it works out well for the tenants during the winter.
You either caught ET travelling your town, or Google maps was at work, in the shadow.
In Cleveland, Ohio, at 9306 Carnegie Avenue, the old Packard dealership building was incorporated into one of the buildings on the Cleveland Clinic medical campus. The stonework surrounding an overhead walkway still spells out P-A *** R-D.
https://forums.aaca.org/topic/60184-is-there-a-publication-or-book-on-packard-dealerships/?tab=comments#comment-1231240
http://www.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/dealer/View.php?ID=404
Several years ago, I drove past this GM dealership in western Illinois — just looked it up and found it’s still operational. It’s in a building that looks like it was built in the 1920s, and it’s located on the courthouse square in Pittsfield, IL.
This is one of the only small-town, main-street dealerships I’ve come across that’s still in its original building. Back when I was there, it carried all 5 GM franchises; now, it’s a Buick/GMC dealership. This is a 2016 Google StreetView below:
Great topic! In my smaller Michigan city, the ones I know of are:
Chevrolet – Changed ownership, same location
Ford – Changed location, same ownership (former location now a parking lot)
Chrysler – Changed location, same ownership (former location now a parking lot)
Cadillac/GMC – Changed ownership, same location
Buick – Taken on by Cadillac dealer (former location now a parking lot)
Oldsmobile – Now a uniform clothing shop
Toyota – Now a handicapped van conversion and sales facility
Honda – Now a lumberyard
Mazda (and maybe VW and Nissan, not sure) – Now a fruit market
As a side note, we used to have about 5 dedicated used car lots here, now there are none. One is now a detailing shop, one is a rental car facility, the others are vacant.
This building was a garage for many, many years, but it was also Glasgow’s first multi-storey car park, back in the early 1900s. There are plans to either turn it into a chicken shop or a Wholefoods. I’d prefer it stayed a garage or something automobile-related.
This discussion made me remember an old Dodge dealership in another nearby town. I didn’t spend a lot of time in this town, but when I was in marching band in high school we marched in their Christmas parade. This dealership served as our staging area before the parade. I remember even at the time in the late 1990s out band director called it “one of the last remaining downtown car dealerships” or something to that effect.
So I managed to find the location on Google Maps, and much to my surprise the old Dodge used car signs with the Pentastar logo are still there! I have no idea when the dealership closed, but it looks like it was most recently an independent used car dealer. I’m pretty sure that warehouse looking building on the right was the new car showroom (we’re seeing a side view of it here).
The image appears have been rejected because it was a PNG file instead of a JPEG. Lets try again.
There’s a subreddit devoted to these types of conversions: https://www.reddit.com/r/NotFoolingAnybody/
Volvo dealer to tech school in Seekonk, MA:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7920995,-71.324614,3a,75y,206.34h,73.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNttDePYsnLH-4h79MwZMIQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Lo and behold…
https://www.reddit.com/r/NotFoolingAnybody/comments/cs8emj/curbside_classic_blog_article_about_repurposed/
Can you picture a round “OK” sign on top of this building? It was the used car department of Paramount Chevrolet in Downey, California. My grandparents sold them the land in 1957 which was our family farm. The dealership folded in 1991.
Here is the main showroom around the corner in 1953. The dealership was established in 1939.
Awesome piece, Jason. I was late to this one! “Wheezer” Honda – I’m dead. LOL
Old car dealership buildings have long fascinated me, as well.
I’ve seen a few casualties of franchise culls after the 2008 crash. The RV dealer on Franklin Avenue in Bend Oregon was a Chrysler dealer until they lost their franchise, then hung on for a few years as a used car dealer before closing and the RV dealer took over. A similar thing happened to the old dealership building in John Day, which is currently a repair shop but had been a Ford dealer.