Graves Anderson Pontiac, Walla Walla, WA.
White Pontiac, Federal Hill, RI.
Cunningham Pontiac, Forrest Hill, NY.
1958’s In The Showroom.
Pontiac Village, Boston, MA.
Estenoz Motors, Buick-Pontiac, Key West, FL.
Paretti Pontiac, New Orleans, LA.
Dick Lewis Pontiac-Cadillac dealership, Olympia, WA.
Love these old dealer pics, brings back memories of the great unveilings back in my young days in the ’50s & ’60s. Keep ’em coming!
Me too! Notice the “Boston”, dealer signs even in include “Vauxhall”.
Totally love the Cunningham Pontiac showroom, especially the lighting. Exterior shot of the same dealership:
Later pic with a Sunbird and Parisienne showing they were still there in the mid-’80s. Apparently they moved to another location sometime after that and were around until the end of Pontiac. The building may have survived until about 2006; the earliest Google Maps view of that address shows what looks like last stage of construction of an apartment building.
That car looked so tempting, so easy to drive
Just like that apartment that you burglarized
You started to run, but didn’t get far
’Cause under your arm was a VCR
Great collection! I think the interior image is of Boomershine Pontiac in Atlanta. Here’s a postcard of the dealership’s exterior, and the windows and door patterns appear to match:
Every dealer is attractively presented, if not representing a consistent corporate brand. I like that the buildings and lots, occupy a modest footprint.
Cunningham Pontiac’s showroom is gorgeous. While Dick Lewis Pontiac-Cadillac has the appearance of a restaurant, or ski chalet. Pontiac Village would look considerably more attractive, as a standalone building. Without the busy facade, of the business next door. All the examples are very appealing.
The “58’s”, in the showroom pic is amazing!! Cars then were not small. Look how darn many are in there!!
((and there is space between them))
Amazingly, the Boston Pontiac Village building still stands! So much in that part of the city has been flattened and rebuilt by Boston University, it floors me that this didn’t get destroyed.
Too bad the giant Chief Pontiac head is gone.
870 Commonwealth Ave. Boston.
The showroom might look like a ski lodge but, how convenient for the business man who picks up his new Cadillac Seville and orders his wife that Pontiac Bonneville convertible. One salesmen one dealership.
My grandparents lived just down the block from Cunningham Pontiac. We would make the turn off of Queens Blvd on that corner to get to their apartment building. I had forgotten that the dealership was so cool looking. I went in there in late 1987 to see the new Gran Prix. There was a blue ‘88 parked in front of a silver ‘87 model. It was a small showroom. Thanks for the memory! Im guessing they closed down that building in the early 90’s
Old dealership photos are always neat. They show not just how the cars were but life and business as well.
#1 All new ’59 models with a couple of Vauxhall’s on the second row.
#2 Used car department. On the right a ’54 model. From the foreground heading back a ’54 Chieftain Deluxe 4 door sedan, ’54 Ford Customline or Crestline Fordor, ’53/4 Pontiac 4 door sedan, ’55 Pontiac 4 door sedan, ’55 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe, ’55 Plymouth Belvedere 4 door Suburban, ’55 Ford Customline or Fairlane Fordor. In the street a ’57 Pontiac 4 door sedan.
#3 New ’54 models with a Star Chief convertible up front. Fancy lighting in the ceiling.
#4 Quite a variety on new ’58 models with the Chief himself welcoming visitors.
#5 Looks like 1962. Two Bonneville Safari wagons on each end of the showroom but I can’t determine what is in the middle. On the street from the left a ’57 Ford Fairlane 500 Town Sedan, ’62 Tempest sedan, ’59 Plymouth Sport Fury convertible, ’62 Chevy II wagon.
#6 Used car row. A white ’62 Bonneville 4 door Vista on the corner. Heading left a ’64 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass Holiday Coupe, 1st gen Corvair convertible, ’60 Pontiac, ’63 Ford full size, skip one, ’61 Ford Falcon, skip one, ’61 Pontiac, skip one, two dark VW Beetle’s. From the corner heading right a ’63 Buick Skylark Sport Coupe, ’63 Impala Sport Coupe, ’65 Catalina Sports Coupe, ’58-’60 Thunderbird, two ’59 Buick’s. In the street a ’62 Oldsmobile Dynamic or Super 88 Celebrity Sedan.
#7 So this is where Trader Joe began… All ’64 models from the left a Bonneville 4 door Vista, Tempest Custom 4 door sedan, Catalina or Star Chief 4 door Vista.
#8 1964 with a Bonneville convertible along with that Cadillac.
Thanks for the photos.
Addison on Bay was a Pontiac dealership that is located in Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦. Photo circa 1969.
I too lament first the passing of Pontiac and then the days of the big hoopla surrounding the introduction of each year’s new models. I was just getting ready to turn 12 when the 1969 models were announced. Fortunately my parents liked cars as well and I remember touring the dealerships in the area where we lived. Maybe this says something about my life but it was the most exciting part of my year!
#7: Paretti Pontiac, New Orleans, LA.
The photo is their downtown location. In the early 60’s, they moved out to the suburbs of Metairie on Veterans Memorial Blvd. They kept a white ’64 Bonneville on the showroom floor in the early ’00s just for fun.
Once Pontiac folded, they immediately moved to Mazda. They also had a Land Rover/Jaguar franchise, but things didn’t pick up till they moved that showroom from a side street to Veterans Blvd in the last few years.
Suddenly, I’m seeing Land Rovers everywhere!!!
Looking at the 1958’s in the showroom, which is probably a Pontiac stand-alone dealer, it appears there’s not much variety. Pontiac only offered full size cars then. But you could choose from several levels: Bonneville, Chieftan, Super Chief, and Star Chief. You could also choose from wagons, convertibles, 2 and 4 door hardtops, and 4 door sedan.
Ten years in the future, a much better variety of Pontiacs existed. There were Grand Prix, Bonneville Brougham, Bonneville, Executive, Ventura (full size), Catalina, GTO, Lemans, Tempest Custom, Tempest, and an assortment from Firebird including Firebird, Sprint, 350, H.O., and 400. The same body styles could be found in 1968 as well, but not in all models.
I notice that all the dealerships only featured cars on their lots. Quite a difference from today where dealers feature pick up trucks
The Graves Anderson dealership building still exists, greatly modified, as a hip looking local restaurant called TMAC. Even cooler, the former dealership next to it at 11 N. Colville St. is a 470-person event space called The Motor Co, with wood beams and polished floors. The Pontiac dealer is now Dayl Graves GMC in Walla Walla, in business since 1950.
Our family received gift boxes usually for the holidays, from many of the Pontiac dealerships shown,and many more. My father, James T. Wilson, was the director of sales and distribution for Pontiac for the nation back then.. Dad held that position until he retired in 1973. Dealers catered to Dad because he was responsible for them getting the cars that they requested and special ordered. Dad knew most of the Rat Pack , and was helpful in them getting the special cars that they ordered, including Nancy Sinatra’s pink trans Am. Those were the days!!
Looking at those old photos of car dealerships , is almost like turning the calendar back ! Growing up in the Seattle area , there were numerous new car dealers . Seattle’s main Pontiac dealer was Central Pontiac , located downtown Seattle for many years . 60 years ago , you could buy anything from a Volvo to a Cadillac . The auto market was different back then as there weren’t as many imported cars like there are today .
Many of those old dealerships are probably no longer in business or were sold to another company . That’s the way the business world works . Those early photos are priceless or irreplaceable . Some of us older citizens may still remember doing business way back in the 1950s or so !
I was hoping (it was a long shot!) that maybe this collection would have included a photo of Harry Brown Pontiac which was an institution in New Hyde Park from the 1940’s through the late 1990’s when it transitioned to a Dodge dealership. A CVS store is now in that location. Thanks for these photos! Amazing!
My uncle Tom, now deceased (99 years of age at passing), was the long time owner of Tom Hatton Pontiac in Rockville, Maryland outside of Washington, D.C. prior to his ownership it was known as Fenner Pontiac and owned by a man by the name of Casper Fenner, everyone called him Cap for short. My Uncle Tom worked for him from a very early age, wound up working in any and all the Departments from service advisor to eventually service manager to salesman to sales manager many, many years. The Fenners never had any children to leave the dealership to and finally made a decision in their older age to sell the dealership to my Uncle Tom for his many, many long-standing years of loyalty and service. And by then by the way he knew the entire business inside and out to successfully run it. So they sold it to my Uncle Tom and moved to Florida for their retirement. Uncle Tom was in his mid 40s by then, and went on to own the dealership and run it successfully for pretty much another 40 years. Where upon he closed it down in his mid-80s and sold the location, the property and the buildings if my memory is right to the city of Rockville for urban redevelopment/renewal and that was the end of the dealership. The proceeds from the sale he gave to his son Gary and helped him to open one of the largest and most successful body shops in the entire area which is still in business although my cousin Gary sold it approximately 7 or 8 years ago to formally retire himself. Suffice it to say that once I came along as I am somewhat younger than my cousin Gary, and was able to drive and purchase my own car as it was expected in our family that you were going to go down to Uncle Tom’s dealership and buy a Pontiac so at least for the first half of my driving life I owned one Pontiac after another from Firebirds, to GTO’s, to Grand Prix and back again. and was happy with everyone of them.
My dad owned Pontiac Village on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston (see above photo). He used to hire former Red Sox players (e.g. Mike Fourneles) to sell Pontiacs because their baseball retirements were so meager! The Chief Pontiac sign over the front door was neon and a real landmark on Commonwealth Ave.
These old dealerships are so cool looking!
I grew up in the 70s and the Pontiac/GMC dealership on our side of Houston was Frank Gilman. They had a very 60s looking high ceiling showroom with raised , covered outdoor wings on either side, for more cars and trucks. Gillman ended up taking over some other dealers and makes in the new millennium. We only bought one vehicle from them(in the Houston area they had a bad reputation), a 1981 GMC Sierra pickup for our auto parts store shop truck. That truck served us well, but we only bought it there because they were the only dealer in town who had a truck equipped just the way we wanted (V8, automatic, long bed, AC; basic shop truck).
I’ve tried to post pictures of what King Pontiac/GMC in Gonzales, Texas looks like now, but they wouldn’t load. It was a small showroom next to the Texaco station, on one of the main streets into town. My grandma bought a ’68 Tempest 4 door sedan there, that she drove until she passed in 1985. My parents bought our family car there too, a ’70 LeMans 4 door sedan. Ours was gold with white top and gold vinyl interior (not great in Texas summers!), and her ’68 was ivory with a teal blue top and interior. I’ve never seen another one in that color combo.
Is that an El Catalina in the first pic?
If so, it is one of only 2 ever built!