Interesting link - old dealership photo

[rkapteyn]

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/vault/2013/10/local-studebaker-dealership-shown-in-late-1920s/

Robert Kapteyn

[Studebaker Wheel]

Neat old photo but too bad the image is in such low resolution. Winerich was in San Antonio, TX. The photo is from 1932. I have always thought someone should do a book on the Studebaker dealerships.

[8E45E]

The photo is from 1932. I have always thought someone should do a book on the Studebaker dealerships.

That would be a monumental project, to say the least! It would take three or four volumes, maybe more to do thoroughly. Even long-time dealerships would have changed their signage, and sometimes even their locations over the years. Perhaps volumes that cover the different decades would be the best way to do a portfolio on old dealerships.

Craig

[62champ]

That would be a monumental project, to say the least! It would take three or four volumes, maybe more to do thoroughly. Even long-time dealerships would have changed their signage, and sometimes even their locations over the years. Perhaps volumes that cover the different decades would be the best way to do a portfolio on old dealerships.

Craig

You know over the years dealers sent hundreds of thousands of photos to South Bend with the hope of being included in the "Wheel" or anything involved with the company. It is already well known about how much disappeared from the archives over the years, and little of this dealer information was probably included in the first place - too bad.

[Roscomacaw]

I've posted about the local Studebaker dealers thru the years. And about a month ago (or so) I contacted local Visalia historian, Terry Ommen to share the photos I have of the Switzer and Jordan dealership on Main St.. Terry was enthusiastic about the pics and shared them on his history blog. http://www.visaliahistory.blogspot.com/
If you follow the link, you have to scroll down a bit to find these pics. And before you get down far enough - take note of the feature about the 138-year old building. While I have yet to research old newspapers, I strongly suspect that this building was an outlet FOR Studebaker wagons and implements pre-20th century.

One thing I DID find out from Terry is that a building that once housed a Stude dealer was actually built to be a Stude dealership in 1916. Terry had a newspaper clipping that detailed the dealer's contracting with a builder to build said business place. Neat thing is you can go to that very building today and have a nice lunch or just kick back with some coffee. Our chapter had it's 2nd Xmas dinner there in 1994 when it was a sports bar/restaurant.

[2R2]

Neat old photo but too bad the image is in such low resolution. Winerich was in San Antonio, TX. The photo is from 1932. I have always thought someone should do a book on the Studebaker dealerships.

Richard, I would nominate you to write this book. I'll tell you what, if you put it together, I will buy a copy for a reasonable sum.
There, you have already made one sale!!

[Studebaker Wheel]

Richard, I would nominate you to write this book. I'll tell you what, if you put it together, I will buy a copy for a reasonable sum.
There, you have already made one sale!!

Thanks for the encouragement Eric. I am thinking about $500 ea for the books.

Seriously I have considered it. I have maybe 200-300 or more dealer photos plus lots of data.

[Bill Pressler]

Thanks for the encouragement Eric. I am thinking about $500 ea for the books.

Seriously I have considered it. I have maybe 200-300 or more dealer photos plus lots of data.

I'm in, Richard! Well, maybe not at $500, but...

You provided me the very first photo I'd seen of my hometown dealer, Carl E. Filer Co. That was when I was just first getting to know Ed (Carl, Jr.). I since have made copies of a bunch of color slides he took of the dealership from '50 through '65.

I'd love a book of Stude dealer photos. From a selfish standpoint, I'd love to see '60's dealer pics, as it seems I haven't seen a whole lot of them and I know the dealer organization was shrinking by that time.

[JRoberts]

A couple of years ago I decided to research Studebaker dealerships in the Sandhills region of North Carolina. This is around 9 different counties. I have found this much more difficult than I had envisioned. Too my surprise the largest dealer in the region, R & W Auto Sales, had no pictures of the dealership. I spoke the the owner, who has since passed away, about pictures and he was adamant that there were no pictures of the dealer ship. His dad started the dealership in 1939 and it lasted until 1966 and no pictures. His daughter contacted me at one point and she too was looking of pictures and could find none when going through her dad's things. I have run into that with other former dealers as well. I have had to put the project on the back burner lately but hope to get back to it before too long.

[Studebaker Wheel]

Good luck on that project Joe. My local dealer in Washington, Illinois was in business from the early '20s til the end and I was unable to find any photos of his place. The Studebaker national museum archives has hundreds and hundreds of dealership photos though not well organized. Of course they also have a card file of all dealers organized by state and city and their franchise information (i.e. ownership, dates granted etc.), and a separate file of street address for these dealers. I believe from my observations that this card file includes all dealers that were still in business anytime after about 1958. I am attaching copies of the two cards from a dealer in Illinois that started business in 1936 as samples below. These are available from the museum for $25.

[8E45E]

Another good place to check would be local sources including the public library, newspaper, and the city/town archives. Example of what city archives contain here: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...ght=gramophone

Craig

[Flashback]

Thanks for posting. Intresting picture. Anyone notice the unusual placement of fire escape?

[Roscomacaw]

Back when I was enthusiastically chasing the histories of dealerships in Visalia, I managed to contact and meet one of the owner's daughters. I even took her for a nice drive in our Lark ragtop. She looked thru all the old photos she had and could only come up with a photo of a well servicing rig her dad used to keep busy duing the war years - when no new cars were to be had. She said she remembered well, her dad throwing out all the books, records, signs, correspondence, etc., in the early 70s. His opinion was : who would want all this old junk? Wish I'd been around when he tossed it all.
The couple of fotos I did stumble upon were from a fella that had married into the dealer's family. Switzer and Jordan were the dealers from '37 thru '65. And just prior to that, another person had the Stude dealership right next door to where Switzer and Jordan were.