Let’s revisit suburban lifestyles in the ’50s and ’60s thanks to some vintage images. As on previous occasions, the photos highlight mostly then-new residential areas, with many of the period’s cars by the curbside. It’s mostly a cars/housing/street gallery, with the occasional neighbor making a friendly appearance.
The picture with the 58 Desoto and 59 Ford is interesting because of those two beaters parked out on the street. Those brick home so New Yorkish.
And they’re both only about 10 years old. Quite the contrast to the typical 10 year old car nowadays.
Yes Paul, the `49 and `50 Dodges parked at the curb sure demonstrate how fast the tin worm could ravage a car back then. Rustproofing was still a ways off, so unless you were meticulous about keeping the car clean those early post WWII cars were only good for maybe 5-7 years. My guess is, either or both Dodges belong to teens as their first car?
Another random (non-car) thing I find interesting in that picture is what appears to be a window-mounted air conditioner right above the Ford. Or perhaps a swamp cooler? I could be wrong on both counts but that’s what it appears to my laymen eyes. Window AC was certainly around back then but it was rare and relatively expensive.
Window units were common in hot areas in ’59, not yet common in cooler places like Ohio or Oregon. In ’59 nearly every house in Kansas and Oklahoma had an AC of some sort.
Cars, homes, people, and lawn chairs. I remain committed to the lawn chair.
The Austin Healey A100/4 and the Bonneville convertible in the drive rather suggests some serious car people live here.
The Healey looks to be in rough shape. Looks like the front grill is missing and the door looks like it has some distortion along the bottom edge.
However, I suspect the young man in the photo made many sacrifices to get it in the first place.
Enjoy the ride!!
The ’59 Ford parked in the garage in picture 1 looks like it has a pretty good oil leak … good ole cork gaskets, no doubt.
That Ford’s the newest car in the picture. Maybe the oil was left by the car they traded for it?
Interesting comparison to today – many images with oil-stained pavement (and likely other fluids), from relatively new vehicles!
That’s a sharp ’57 Chevy lightly customized in the style of the times. Judging from the other cars on the street, it looks to be a new, or almost new car. These were so popular since they were new, and they were often cleaned up a bit, like this one. Great shot of a great car!
Green sticker on license plate is 1958. Interesting car, mid level model 210 trim, not Belair, but two door hardtop body. “V” emblem on trunk lid means V-8. A six would be highly unlikely with the side pipe and custom touches. Rear window shelf appears to have a car club sign.
I didn’t know people were lowering cars that early. What’s in front of the rear wheel?
Wide open side exhaust, aka Lake pipes, capped to prevent noise tickets for regular driving.
My dad lowered his car in the 1940’s.
The two older cars are a black 1950 Dodge Wayfarer and what appears to be a 1949 Plymouth or Dodge business coupe. The Wayfarer and the business coupe were built on the same wheelbase. A three-seater, single bench, convertible was also offered. The business coupe looks as if was used in the hardly famous movie, “My Life in a Saltmine.”
It’s a ’49 or ’50 Plymouth. The Plymouth ‘compacts’ had 111″ wheelbase, while the Dodge Wayfarer was 115″.
That next to last shot with the 63 and 59 Fords. That 63 Galaxie shows either terrible fit of the driver’s door or a terrible paint match from a repair/repaint.
But otherwise, an attractive car, in my opinion.
My eye was actually caught by the enormous VHF TV antenna in the background of that one. Someone was very committed to receiving.
Then again, there are a lot of antennas in these pictures. Something else that many of us (of a certain age) just took for granted, until they were all gone. Perhaps, in the case of roof-mounted antennas, for the better.
I hadn’t even registered the antennas until you mentioned them.
I didn’t register them either until you called them out. More distant stations required taller antennas. The ’57 Chevy house seems to have a ham radio antenna.
The roofers removed the antenna from the two-story chimney at my grandmother’s house next door in 2019, and I was the only one who noticed the huge change in the way the house looked. It had a motor that turned it–half the stations were to the east, the other half to the west.
These are some of the best pics!! Anyone know the color (name) of that “60’s Ford coupe”? ((has the white top))
Remember a friend’s parents had a “65 Fairlane”, just about that shade.
Was a wagon. As it was rather new, seemed quite cool at the time.
The pic with the two white converts is my fav.
It looks to me like a 1963-64 color called Rose Beige. It was slightly pink, and it could be that the color on the photo lost a bit of the pinkishness the paint had. Your friend’s 65 Fairlane was probably a different color, because Rose Beige was only used on Thunderbirds in 1965.
It might also be Castillian Gold, but I doubt it. Jason Shafer’s 63 Galaxie was that color (I believe) and it was decidedly more golden than the car in the photo appears.
That lowered silver (no 2 tone paint) ’57 Chev with the lakes pipes is sweet! The very early (small front wheel opening) Austin Healey is rather down at heel, missing its grille and with rust pushing out the door bottom – I wonder how long it survived?
That ’63 Galaxie is tugging at my heartstrings. I would give up several organs to have a nicely-trimmed but ordinary Galaxie like that.
I love these photo comps because it’s so hard for me, having grown up in the 2000’s, to imagine what these cars looked like it daily use. Whenever I see these cars they’re unnaturally spotless and shiny, either parked at a fairground or being driven 10 under on a sunny Saturday. Boring. They’re cars. I want to see them used as cars. Thankfully there seems to be a trend with the younger (than boomer) generations that aren’t afraid to show a little grit and grime on their classics. I don’t know how they can afford it, but I respect it nonetheless.
I love the ’60 Pontiac convertible and the “mild custom” ’57 Chevy, as noted it’s a 210, not a Bel Air. Dad actually wanted a ’57 when he got the ’55, but the ’57s were out of the price range for a college kid.
The first picture reminds me of stories my Dad told about his younger days. His Dad was killed in WW2 when he was tiny, and he was raised by his mother and grandmother. In late 1953 Nanny (as the family called his grandmother) was car shopping. She settled on a Mercury, and got a loaded ’53 Monterey because it was the same price as a stripper ’54. Looked just like the one in the picture except theirs was black. And the ’55 Chevy coupe in the corner is a similar color combo as the one he bought in college, in ’63 or so after his ’40 Ford sedan dumped him one too many times.
Dad did some mild customizing to the Merc and he did a few things to the Chevy as well. After he started dating Mom, they both worked on it. They showed the car locally in Texas from 1965-68, winning several Best in Class awards. It was repainted Cadillac Pelham Blue, with a little Firefrost in the mix, and had a pearl white naugahyde roll and pleat custom interior; painted by Boots at Custom Body Shop and interior by South Lamar Auto Trim, both in South Austin circa 1965-66.
There was a farm down the street run by two brothers and their sister…don’t remember the sisters name but the brothers were Frank and Jesse Briggs.. one drove a 67 or so falcon , the other drove a 37 Buick special coupe that had the trunk lid removed and a homemade wood bed to haul milk cans from the barn to the roadside pickup point… Knew the sound of that straight 8 coming down the road.. After the farm was passed on the Buick ended up with a young guy that would haul his go kart in the coupe bed… Lots of cool car memories
I can only tell you what my Dad and my favorite uncle did in the 50’s in Philadelphia , They would have the Undercarriege washed several times every Winter , to remove the road Salt ….
My Dad would take extra good care of his cars …
He would put the Winter Thermostat in as soon as he saw a little frost in early October .
Had the Winter Chains ready in the trunk . My uncle and him could put 4 Tire chains on a car in under 10 min.
Love these old photos, and I’m always somewhat amazed at what percentage of cars were convertibles back then! (IIRC, convertible production as a percentage of all cars peaked in maybe 1961 or 1962.) I’m guessing convertibles were more popular than factory A/C until about that point in time!
I sure love seeing these old classic cars from the 50’s!…such a different time..My parents had
a ’57 Baby blue Ford Fairlane..with the goldish aluminum on the side panels..i didnt see a pic of it in this collection, but it was early ’50’s..My aunt had a dark green Dodge..so beautiful, and the interior had the fancy dashboard, with white steering wheel, and on all the gears.
In Pic’ 5 The ’57 Chevy Belaire has a modified suspension. So it sits low to the ground. If you look closely, the back window displays a car club plaque! I guess this explains the model being a two door hardtop and lowered? Nice ride for it’s time? Oh’ and I almost forgot the drag pipes!
When I was a kid in 1958, there were some real nice customs. Lake pipes were common in model cars. On the street they would have got good attention. The sound of a 283 with glass packs rapping off is unforgettable. Keep driving this stuff till they make it illegal. I do👍
Yeh I had a 56 Plymouth Fury, seems it was a 260 V8 with push button gear shift. I badly wanted to dump the buttons and put in a stick but the powers that be at time threatened to take the car away What a car.
The young lady standing near the early 50’s Plymouth looks like she is dressed the part.
Alot of old Plymouths back then ! We owned a ’53 Plymouth until 1966 . Riding in it one day my mother commented , ” The dependable car!” We certainly did get our money out of it as we only paid $375 for it used back in 1962 .Not bad !
We sure dressed better back then
Pic 5 is not a Bel-Air it’s a 210 hardtop, everybody See’s a tri 5 and it’s a Bel-Air
Those guys jumping in that white Cuda getting ready to cruise with a 12 pak.
Looking back at that silver ’57 Chevy Two Ten again, I noticed it has several “factory options” including the very rare ribbed aluminum trim on the bottom of the decklid and in the fender/tailfin curves. Many conservative and mild customs were done this way; get parts from the dealership or gently used items from swap meets. The hubcaps are Olds Fiestas or an aftermarket, slightly different version.
This trend continued into the Sixties, and the Hot rod/kustom enthusiast magazines would have tips and guidance on what parts combos worked best for different models and makes. My Dad, being the child of the 50s/60s that he was, still did custom tricks like this on his ’70 Pontiac LeMans (our family car) and his ’75 GMC Sierra Classic (the first brand new vehicle in our family). He went to several GM dealers’ parts departments to get things for that truck, like the ’73-74 tailgate trim with no emblem (the GMC logo was embossed on the tailgate’s upper left corner instead of in the middle recess as in later years, and on all the Chevy pickups) and the very rare GMC logo wire wheel covers. He did a few other cool things to that truck, that I’ve never seen on another square body trucks. And I’ve seen quite a few of them, in the last fifty years, especially living in Texas.
As to the white 1959 Ford, with two Dodge “beaters” in the foreground: are we assuming that this is 1959? Could be 1965, for all we know. If we look closely, there are spots on that ’59 Ford which look less than “new”. This looks very New York, a lower middle class neighbourhood. Window air conditioners were not uncommon in the late 1950s and early 1960s: what you seldom saw in a private residence back then, was CENTRAL air. I remember bring on the Long Island Expressway in 1954, in a 1951 Packard, passing a black 1941 Dodge — and there was enough rust around the rear fender, such that most of it was detached and flapping in the breeze. Of course, in 1954, a 1941 Dodge was a common sight, and most of them still were intact. So, when we judge these two “beaters” keep in mind that plenty of examples on the roads in the 1960s were in decent shape. The older of these two Dodges has lots of what to-day would be cherished as “patina” — but NOT all of those DENTS. People took care of cars (or not) in the postwar era, just as they do now. If you keep it clean and well-maintained, and you wash the salt off right away, then you can keep a car for many years. In 1967, I knew an elderly man who drove a 1933 Pontiac sedan daily. Neat car — still looked nice and ran beautifully. He was in his nineties then, so I have no idea what became of the car. I remember the inside rear seat window curtains.