West Buick Inc., Wellesley, MA.
Key Buick, Jacksonville, FL.
Bower Motors Inc., La Grange, IL.
Justus Buick, West Cadwell, NJ.
Bill Stillwell Buick, Downers Grove, IL.
Hatfield Buick, Redlands, CA.
Vintage Dealer Postcards: Buick Dealers 1960s-1970s
– Posted on September 14, 2024
A great collection. Architecturally, and in their landscaping, Key Buick is almost beautifully presented. As their signage to the far left, looks a bit garish. Though, not an uncommon design look for the era.
Bower Motors appears to have offset printed their name, on their sign-free brick facade. On the post cards, at least. While the octagon-shaped showroom at Justus Buick, looks quite attractive. It would have aged well.
Interesting in the last two photos, to see the transition to more modern GM corporate branding, in the 1970’s. As both dealers feature, then current latest GM primary signage design. Along with non-corporate architecture, and other dated dealer-created signage. GM didn’t appear to take a hard line, that branding had to be much more broadly consistent, at once.
I’ve driven past Justus Buick. In 2021 it looked like this. The building is now gone.
Just up the highway from Justus was G.I. Auto Salvage, the huge auto junkyard that I wrote about before. It’s now “Avalon at Montville” (high-rise condos) with god-knows-what buried underneath. They should have called it “Junkyard Heights”, LOL!
Bill Stillwell Buick (early ’70s image above) has a white ’58 Buick up front! (For laughs? Historical value?) It would get MY attention, FR!
Stephen wasn’t there a small dirt track loop near the salvage yard on 46? I recall driving near there.
I don’t know if the Justus Buick photo was staged, or the photographer just shot what was there, but either way it is fascinating to me that the most prominent cars are Opels. It has always been my impression that most Buick dealers saw Opel as a sort of “side hustle” rather than something they featured and sold prominently.
I grew up an NYC suburb, and I remember having to practically beg the guy at the Buick parts counter to look up Opel parts.
I can’t see any Opels in the showroom, though. They were probably more popular a couple of years later, after Oct. ’73.
Sometimes dealers’ local newspaper ads were amusing – or at least they’re amusing in retrospect. Bill Stillwell called himself the Buick Baron, and had a long-running mascot character in his ads (who was dressed more like a general than a baron). Here’s the Baron announcing the new showroom, that’s advertised in the postcard above.
Of course, construction of the new showroom meant The Baron was selling cars a Rock Bottom Prices!
Not quite so elegant 😅….Bluenose Motors, Lincoln Street, Lunenburg NS, on what looks like a very wet summer day c. 1960.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10157072685491242&set=pcb.10157980761403331
Holy Guacamole 🥑! My mother bought a car from Bill Stillwell Buick. A 1983 Buick Century sedan with a wheezy “Iron Puke 🤮 “ I4. Mom should have kept the Le Sabre my late father bought at Svitak Buick in Berwyn, IL and ditched the Century for what a huge lemon 🍋 it was.
I remember the Buick Baron ads and my best friend’s late father bought two Buick Park Avenues from Bill Stillwell.
Some lovely Buicks in there and I too noticed the Opels .
-Nate
Loved those 78 LeSabre and Regal signs in the showroom under big squared incandescent-lit Buick squares.. So gaudy and yet so classic cool..
I think the ’61 Buicks had the cleanest lines of that era: smack dab between the gaudy 58 – 60, and the slab-sided & “coke – bottle” later ’60s.
I have to agree BlueFox. I love the `60 models, as they corrected and improved what the `59s were lacking IMO. But `61 came around, and Buick produced what I consider the best looking of all the GM lines! Gone were the fins in favor of clean, smooth lines. The rest of the decades offerings were nice, but they didn’t compare to the `61 models!
I was born and lived a while in Riverside, CA, one town over from Redlands. I remember Buick agency on Redlands Boulevard. We would drive there to visit an aunt who lived near there. We later moved to Newport Beach.
My grandparents were ‘ Buick loyal’. They owned a ‘28 sedan, ‘37 Roadmaster, ‘50 Riveria two door hardtop, ‘57 Caballero wagon, ‘69 Electra two door hardtop. The Electra was their final car. They owned it for 12 years before they both passed away (a year apart).
When I was 9 years old, I went with my grandfather to trade in his 1960 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 four door flat top sedan on a brand new ’70 Buick Le Sabre Custom 2 door hard top in Burgundy Mist Metallic from Simpson Buick in Downey, CA.
Prominently displayed on the showroom floor was an orange ’70 Buick Opel GT. I still remember sitting in that little Opel Corvette-looking car and messing around with the handle to flip the headlights in and out.
Didn’t get yelled at by the salesman, either. Most likely due to the fact that my grandfather bought it cash. He was a barber and had a lot of cash flow.
He said that this would be the last car he was going to buy. He bought a new car every 10 years. He was right. He drove that car for five years. I got the car when he passed and drove it all through high school.
The Stillwell building was a popular design at the time. I remember more than a few.
Can’t say I’ve seen any standing recently.
I worked at key buick in Jax from 1974 to 1983 great employer great staff great memories, thank you Tom perry