Pappas Chevrolet, Kansas City MO, 1967.
Benjamin Chevrolet, Brooklyn NY, 1959.
Hal Greene Chevrolet, Monrovia CA, 1962.
Parker-Robb Chevrolet, Walnut Creek CA, 1965.
Good Chevrolet, Napa CA, 1966.
Benjamin Chevrolet, Brooklyn NY, 1966.
Parker-Robb Chevrolet, Walnut Creek CA, 1967.
Ross Wemp Chevrolet-Oldsmobile, Rexdale, Ontario Canada, 1970s.
Pappas Chevrolet, Kansas City MO, 1970s.
Parker-Robb in Walnut Creek is now Honda and Acura.
Benjamin Chevrolet was only 1.5 miles away from Empire Chevrolet (at the corner of Empire Blvd and Utica Ave, (or 1 Remsen Ave) Brooklyn) which was in business at that location in the 1940s to the 1980s.
i do love rich baron’s posts
Was curious if Pappas Chevrolet, had any connection to then MLB Pitcher Milt Pappas. No connection. Pappas never pitched for the KC Royals either. Very attractive building.
Bit surprised, Ross Wemp was not using then current GM branding for their dealership exterior. See last Pappas Chevrolet photo, for an example. Dealer name within the bow tie, looks dated. Besides tacky. Strong sales may have gave them influence? The 1975/’76 era photo shows two official 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics flags on the rooftop. On either side of the Canadian flag. As GM Canada sold Olympic edition versions of the Malibu and CK Pickup. Adorned, with the official logo. They were popular. Saw many in both rural and urban locales, at the time.
Many dealers moved towards using the space in front of the showroom, to exclusively showcase new cars. Not a customer parking area, with numerous competitor’s cars parked front and centre. lol
Excellent observations! I imagine this must be circa 1976 due to the Montreal Olympic flags that you shrewdly identified, plus nothing newer than a ’76….I see a Seville, Impala wagon, Monza, and yes…..a ’73 Torino and a Cougar??? As a US resident in a border town, I remember Canada in that era, and I think there may have been less corporate insistence in uniformity, whereas in the US, all the dealers had the Mark of Excellence signage. As late as the mid-1990s, I remember passing “Golden Mile Chev-Olds”, and it had the charming albeit dated neon signage circa 1960s. I passed by there a few weeks ago by chance, and I’m pretty certain that the sign is finally gone. Too bad in some ways because it added a uniqueness to a dealership experience. I knew about the Olympic version Chevy pickup (there was a US Bicentential counterpart at USA dealers), but was unaware of an Olympic version of the Malibu. Canada really experienced a drastic growth spurt during the 1970s when Trudeau relaxed immigration policy, and events like Expo ’67 and then the ’76 Olympics made it a world focal point, plus the amazing architecture in downtown Toronto of City Hall, the CN Tower, and the Eaton Centre. Modern and forward-thinking, and somehow have dated very well. Good times indeed for Canada.
Space-inspired signage at Good Chevrolet, is quite trendy and attractive for the era.
Helps compensate some for a modest showroom building.
Large footprint of Hal Greene Chevrolet, is also very attractively presented.
When I looked up the site of Good Chevrolet, I was mighty surprised that the sign is still there (the dealership’s changed names a few times since then).
Not as colorful as before, but a great use of heritage signage, and far more distinctive than the typical squarish corporate box design:
Thank you for researching this. Very impressed, the sign remains!
I love that Pappas building! I can only imagine how tight that showroom must have gotten inside with the huge cars of the 1970’s.
Perhaps for the reason JP Cavanaugh mentions, that Pappas Chevrolet building only lasted into the early 80s, it’s now been replaced by a nice but not nearly so elaborate post office.
Curiously, next door (211 W Gregory Blvd 64114) is a former BrandsMart appliance showroom that looks more like a restaurant with a garden lounge than an electronics retail shop. That building has been empty since BrandsMart went bankrupt, twenty-plus years ago, put a perennial source of speculation as to what might be next.
The building itself lasted until 1988, when it was destroyed by a fire. The Pappas family sold their dealership in 1982; it was then operated as Taylor-Coulson Chevrolet in the same building until 1986, and then as Roberts Chevrolet until the fire. Roberts never reopened after the fire – they sold the remaining portions of their business to another nearby Chevy dealer.
The building dated from 1931, and had been used as a Chevrolet dealership for its entire life. The Pappas brothers bought it from Land-Sharp Chevrolet in the 1960s.
Taylor-Coulson strikes a note. I lived in KC around that time and heard ads for Taylor-Coulson on the radio. Land-Sharp is also familiar from earlier TV ads when I lived in Manhattan.
Strange how these names live in the brain for decades without ever being used, until something resonates!
Houston was definitely deco in the late 1930’s through the 1940s. A prime example of commercial architecture is the Knapp Chevrolet building at 815 Houston Avenue. GM corporate wanted the family owned dealership to replace its beautiful 1941 structure with the banal corporate box we see too much of today. The owners held their ground and the building remained but did acquire the new signage in 2006. I do hope the original “Chevrolet” sign was preserved somewhere.
BTW, some other examples of prominent art deco architecture in Houston are its city hall (1939), Houston Municipal Airport (1940) and Cullen Auditorium at the University of Houston (1950).
The “64” &”71″ Chevy’s , side by side make an interesting comparison.
I was able to upload only one image to my original post. Here is the current signage on this Chevrolet dealership.
In Glendale, Ca. there’s a building that once was ‘Colonial Buick’, it’s empty now, looks similar to Pappas Chevrolet .
-Nate
4th photo from top —
Look thru the windows of Parker-Robb Chevy ….. full of spectacular ’65 Impalas……
On the far side of the building is a white Triumph TR-3. Just parked along the curb, minding its own business.
The neighbors ((next house down)), had a pretty “spiffy , 65 Impala”! Made our “65 Biscayne” look so “sad”..lol
Liking that “Nova”&”Corvair” in “Monrovia CA”.
Notice to Russ Wemp. The Chevrolet emblem is not reversible. Whoever made your sign is a dope.
The sign has two sides.
Ross wemp has a lotta fords out front
The building for PAPPAS CHEVROLET is inviting. Thanks for the photos.