Text by Patrick Bell.
Greetings. Winter weather has arrived late in many parts of the U.S., but it definitely has arrived. Today we are going to tour some suburbs from yesteryear and see not only what is in the driveway but also how they took care of their driveways.
At our first stop we see what looks like a mother and her two daughters putting the finishing touches on a snowperson in Clark County, Nevada, where both cars were registered. Clark County is the home to Las Vegas. A snowfall such as this one may be unusual for that area. On the left is a ’67 Mustang hardtop, and on the right a ’68 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Holiday Coupe with a ’69 plate and a ’73 sticker.
The next stop is going back nearly twenty years and most of the way across the country to New Jersey. Here we have another young family posing with a ’53 Plymouth Cranbrook Club Coupe. It has a ‘Kiwanis’ badge bolted to the license plate and frozen road splash behind the rear wheels.
Now we are taking a swing back towards the west with a stop in Michigan. I’m not too sure what to make of the building. It seems too large for a single family residence, so perhaps it is an apartment building. In the drive is a ’53 Packard with a Michigan plate used from ’59-’61 and was registered in Ingham County where the seat is Mason. I am unsure of the trim level but it does look like a 4 door sedan. In the background may be the side of a black ’58 Ford Ranchero.
I am not sure where we are in this shot, but there is fresh snow on this ’49 Mercury Coupe. The house looks like it was built in the twenties or thirties and has an enclosed porch added to the rear. The driver thought ahead and had his chains mounted and ready for use.
Someone is warming up their dirty and possibly rusty ’56 Ford Custom Ranch Wagon with a 292 Thunderbird V8. There appears to be a garage on the house but it may be like mine, no room for a car. The license plate is covered, so no real clues on location.
It takes a good driver to be able to park tight against a wall on your blind side while backing through fairly deep snow. I don’t recognize the plate on this ’57 Pontiac convertible so it is hard to pinpoint a location.
Now there is a man with a plan. In the driveway is a red ’55 Ford Country Squire with a V8 and a Massachusetts plate that is either from ’57 with a ’58 sticker in the windshield or ’61 with a ’62 sticker. I don’t recognize the black car on the other side of it.
A man working hard to clear a driveway after a heavy, drifted snowfall. He is digging a path for a ’59 Ford Ranch Wagon Fordor with a plate too blurry to read the state. There may be some rust on that quarter panel.
Another likely Michigan location where someone has worked hard to clear the way for a ’60 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Convertible Coupe with a plate used from ’62-’64. If I am reading the first two digits of the plate correctly at ‘GS’ it was issued in Oakland County where the seat is Pontiac. There appears to be a tall antenna tower behind the house.
A long driveway to keep clear for this ’64 Chevrolet Impala 4 door with a New York plate first issued in ’66. Further up in front of it is a ’66 Impala. Perhaps a Chevrolet family lives here.
A sharp, new looking, all white ’64 Thunderbird with an edge guard used in transportation still on the door. There is a layer of snow on the ground but it is not a recent fall. The T-Bird owner has a Standard station up the street where they can purchase their premium fuel.
This may be a late winter or early spring photo. The snow has melted some but it is currently cold going by the attire that is worn. The lady on the left thinks something is funny but the other two have not caught on as yet. They are standing by a ’62 Chevrolet Biscayne with a 283 V8. The rectangular rear door window frame tells me it is a station wagon. Next door is a ’66 Oldsmobile F-85 Deluxe wagon, and across the street in the driveway is a ’66 Dodge Coronet 440 4 door sedan.
A modern ranch style home with a fairly fresh light snowfall over an earlier accumulation. In the driveway is a ’69 Mustang hardtop, perhaps a Grande model. The license plate is not readable so I cannot determine a location.
Thanks for joining us today and everyone stay warm!
Here I am standing next to Dad’s brand new 1962 Golden Commando 361 Plymouth, Christmas eve 1961, in McAlester, OK when visiting the Grandparents.
This was the only time this New Orleans car got snowed on.
I’m pretty sure I remember this snowstorm. My family was also in Oklahoma visiting relatives that Christmas. Dad was driving our new 1961 Plymouth Valiant on ice and somehow skidded it around in a circle, winding up in a ditch. I remember looking up at the road from the ditch. Somebody came along and pulled us out. Everybody and the car were okay and, presumably, we continued our travels to the next batch of relatives (mostly in Pottawatamie and Oklahoma counties). I was going on four, but it’s a fairly vivid memory.
Ron,
I was 7 years old in this picture, discovering just how-c-c-cold an Oklahoma winter could be. No wonder my Mother snarled to my Father, upon his college graduation: “Move me somewhere warmer or leave me!” Which is how we ended up in New Orleans.
Dad traded off a 1960 Valiant on this Plymouth. He said that, after 2 years driving the Slant Six V-200, this Golden Commando “Felt like an Atlas booster rocket kicking in when I stomped it the first time!”
Oklahoma winters can still get COLD on occasion. Enid (my old home) was 8 degrees yesterday.
’61 was a bad winter in the whole midwest. We lived in Kansas at that time and I built a full-size igloo.
The ’53 Packard looks to be parked in front of a church rectory, not an apartment building. Generic design cues, plus the older model, reminds me of Father Mac’s choice of cars, though the age indicates a less-affluent parish?
I think I found that building. Looks like it’s this apartment building (below) in E. Lansing, adjacent to Michigan State University. I’m assuming that sometime in the last 70 years, the driveway was removed and a large tree planted. Parking is in back, and I think the rear alley was improved at some point to provide better parking access. Since it’s adjacent to the university, that may account for its somewhat institutional appearance – probably was oriented to students from the beginning. Currently the building is used a fraternity, but in the 1950s, it was an apartment building, along with the identical building next door.
The buildings currently in back look like they date from the 1960s, so I think the older houses in the vintage shot were probably razed for them.
Google StreetView link here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ksm4NGhciqNq2fTF6
Yep, that’s it. I knew it wasn’t a detached house as the first and second floor window layout is identical, down to the narrow window near the entry door (almost certainly a bathroom). It’s rare for a house to have the same basic floorplan on both main levels. Also, the entry door looks rather commercial, with those metal bars going across it for protection. I’m more puzzled by the building behind the other car in the Packard photo, which is also huge but does look like a residential single-address house.
Here’s a better view of the mirror-image adjacent building, advertised at rentable.co/east-lansing-mi/227-bogue-st as student apartment housing, though not a fraternity house.
Immediately reminded me of “Christmas Story” covered elsewhere on Curbside:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/christmas-classic-1937-oldsmobile-six-a-christmas-story/
I lived in upstate NY for 8 years. Was advised by the ladies in the office to buy a snow shovel and combo windshield scraper/brush! Replaced the shovel twice during my stay. These were the first items I ditched when a returned to the Deep South.
These shots from Michigan remind me of the ‘snowfall stick’ (that’s what I call it) on US41 north of Hancock up in the Keweenaw. It shows last year’s snowfall and the record seasonal snowfall for that area, close to 33 feet/nine meters. That’s some snow.
I’d like to see a feature on that old snowblower in front of the 55 Ford. It’s a classic.
History of snowblowers would be an interesting article!
Re; 1960 Olds convertible photo with tower behind the house. There were a number of people in SE Arkansas in that era who had towers like that to get decent TV reception. I can’t see how that would be necessary in Oakland County, Michigan but maybe it was.
For Picture #6 (Pontiac in carport), I’m puzzled by the license plate, but the house seems to be in Arlington, Virginia.
Below is a then-and-now comparison. There have been modifications (the original kitchen door has been bricked over and a new sliding door was added), but there’s many details that strongly suggest this is the same place. The address matches, the brickwork, the unusual hilly topography, and the houses in the background.
Address is 5948 2nd St. North in Arlington, VA. StreetView link is here:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/JVW3Qf1h5iyPNEEx9
Wow! How do you find these matches?
The current use as a patio seems like a good idea. It’s just a bit narrow for a carport. The driver had to park uncomfortably close to the edge to be able to open the door all the way. I’d bet the carport dates back to the 20s or 30s when cars were much narrower.
That house built in 1954 according to Zillow, just a few years before the Pontiac.
As for how to find the locations of vintage shots, the visible house number on this one certainly makes it alot easier. I’m a bit surprised the carport is as narrow as it is though given the property seems to extend left of it quite a bit.
That carport is awfully narrow, and one of the recent StreetView shots has a car backed in exactly how the Pontiac is in the vintage shot (below).
LA673’s correct that the address was a big clue here. It looked like the Mid Atlantic region, and 5948 isn’t nearly as common as, say, 301 or something. But a lot it is just pure luck as far as finding some of these scenes.
Great find as usual. I’m surprised the balcony/roof has lasted all this time. Flat porches usually rot fast or collapse from snow.
I was thinking it had probably been rebuilt at least once. The railings look different, there’s posts on the side of the house and on the back wall that weren’t there before.
I was surprised by that too. Most 2nd floor balconies around here have been enclosed into living space.
interesting bunch of photos! A few thoughts:
– The 49 Mercury coupe probably hasn’t survived, since it was likely a rustbelt car, but if it did I’ll bet it is now a customized lead sled.
-I like how the snowblower guy rolls. That was surely the latest and greatest in snow removal at the time. The 55 Country Squire is so cool.
-The 60 Olds convertible looks out of place. Totally clean with no snow on the upper surfaces, like it was probably a garage queen and just driven over for the day.
-Taking into account the door edge guard you pointed out, the framing of the 64 Thunderbird photo make me guess that they just drove it home from the dealer, which would explain the occasion for taking what looks to surely be a photo of the car itself and not the home since the car is perfectly centered in the photo.
The 1949 Mercury may be in Seattle. The car has a Washington license plate, and “A” was the prefix code for King County. There are some neighborhoods in Seattle with very similar-looking houses, built around 1930.
Seattle experienced a blizzard in 1950, and I suspect the picture may have been taken after that event.
Nice detective work, again! The occasion of a rare blizzard would be a good reason for taking a photo of the house and car. If so, good on him for having chains ready for just such and emergency.
The first picture with the Nevada plates, the running shoes on the kids and mom is a dead giveaway that snow wasn’t typical for them. Great cars in both driveways!
Snow shoving your lane or driveway after a heavy snowfall, has always been a great way to socialize with neighbours. Great photos and commentary.
sp: “Shovelling” lol
Regarding the black car in the snowblower shot, it may be a 1957 Lincoln Premiere.
The comparison below shows a brochure image that I rotated so it would be facing the same way, but the greenhouse seems to match:
Great investigative work, Eric, on all of your comments. On the black car I think what was throwing me off is in the photo it looks like it has painted window frames. Looking today I think they were just in the shadows, plus I see the top of the angled molding on the rear door, so I believe you nailed it with the Lincoln ID. Thanks for your input.
Yes, that’s what it is. I looked at some Lincolns that vintage but must have gotten the wrong roof style.
Those of you who have read my COALs will remember my 1958 Fury in the New Jersey snow. This car was a lot of fun to drive and smash through snow drifts, sadly I left it with my parents in 1968 when I moved to California, but glad I am no longer there especially today Jan 8, 2025.
Thanks again Patrick for your knowledge!
Thank you, Troy!