It’s always fun to find out about a buildings past…
I stumbled across this ad for Downtown Motor Sales, a Studebaker-Packard dealership from August 1956.
It was probably the wrong time to open a new dealership, and this was likely one of the last Studebaker-Packard Dealerships ever built. Packard bought Stuedebaker in 1954, and the last Packard was built in 1958.
In 1958 Packard sales were horrible, and the name was tanking, it was retired and ceased to exit in 1959.
Studebaker ceased production in the US in 1963, but continued its Canadian operations in Hamilton, building Studebakers until 1966.
According to Wikipedia, interstingly enough, The remains of the auto maker still exist as Studebaker-Worthington Leasing, a subsidiary of State Bank of Long Island, which provides leasing services for manufacturers and resellers of business products and industrial products.
The building looked familliar to me, and it’s still there with only some slight modifications. It appears to be currently vacant and for sale. It is located beside the Esso on Wyandotte and Marentette.
From the Border Cities Star - December 6, 1924, almost a century ago to the…
Built in 1929, the house at 2177 Victoria Avenue was originally numbered 1545 Victoria, pre…
Crescent Lanes first opened on Ottawa Street in 1944 at 1055 Ottawa Street, opposite Lanspeary…
Above is a photo of the home of Mr & Mrs Oswald Janisse, located at…
in 1917 two Greek brothers Gus & Harry Lukos purchased a one story building on…
View Comments
@ Jim Boland. I thought the building was familiar, when I looked it up, but I was thinking of another former dealership on Wyandotte, a couple of blocks west.
http://internationalmetropolis.com/2010/11/22/mercer-and-wyandotte/
Hello,
Packard did not make a "try at a comeback in 2003" ... this was just a fellow who had some kind of use of the name and (despite a massive investment) built a rather homely car with a V-12 engine and 1940s style grille... then called it a Packard. This car was only recently auctioned off.
There were others who also built cars over the years since Packard's demise and called them "Packard" too. But the company itself was long gone (the real Packards ended with 1956 and they hung on with a disguised Studebaker thingie which didn't go past 1958). Studebaker-Packard officially dropped the "Packard" part of the name in 1962.
As for the dealership mentioned here, it was likely just intended to sell Studebakers. There was a REAL Packard dealership and factory branch just outside of WIndsor (now very much INSIDE Windsor) over on Huron Line Road. They had a showroom, service facility and a small factory unit there. Originally, it simply said "Packard" in vertical letters on a blue porcelain background on the outside of the structure. In this building real knocked-down (K.D.) Packards from the factory in Detroit were fully assembled in Canada.
While I don't get to the area often, and while it is hugely changed from the semi-rural way it once was as I remember it, the building is still intact. But no idea what is in there now. It was originally brick construction with Fenestra-type windows.
I remember riding my bicycle over the Ambassador bridge to Canada from Detroit on my way to my uncle's house–which in those days was considered out in the sticks on Malden Road. I would pass the Packard facility on Huron Line and sometimes stop and get brochures.