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email: agilitynut@hotmail.com |
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| New York Car Showrooms & Dealerships |
(hit "refresh" to get the most recent version of this page; click on photos for larger images)
| Greater Buffalo Savings Bank former Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company showroom Buffalo, NY |
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This former Pierce-Arrow showroom is an Art Deco beauty built in 1929. The building was used to detail cars with walnut trim and gold inlay before they were shipped to customers in the 1920s and 1930s. Pierce-Arrow went bankrupt in 1938. It later became a Cadillac dealership. In 2002, the Greater Buffalo Savings Bank renovated and moved into the building. A First Niagara Bank branch is there now. The magnificent interior has been preserved and an antique Pierce-Arrow car sits next to the banking desks. For more, see these websites: 1 and 2.
The Pierce-Arrow automobile was developed and manufactured in Buffalo in the early 1900s. For more, see this website. |
| former Mack Truck showroom Albany, NY |
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| This former Mack Truck showroom is now occupied by the Fastenal Company. The building also bears the International Motors logo. There is a similar former Mack showroom in St. Paul, MN. For more, see this website. |
| former Mack Truck showroom Rochester, NY |
former Eureka Garage Brooklyn, NY |
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This former Mack Truck showroom is similar to the one in Albany shown above. The "1357" now covers the Mack name. The building now houses OutSource.
The Eureka Garage has a winged wheel relief design. This was probably just a service garage and not a showroom. |
| SPoT Coffee former Hallman's Chevrolet Rochester, NY |
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The Hallman's Chevrolet building is faced with black structural glass and stainless steel. The building itself is from the early 1900s but Hallman gave it this Streamline Art Deco facelift in 1936. The huge arched window, neon signs and clock, are all original.
In 2000, this building was converted into Chevy Place: a 77-unit apartment complex with ground-level retail space. The main tenant is SPoT Coffee which has divided the showroom floor into four sections. There are four other SPoT stores in Western NY. |
| Mercedes-Benz Showroom New York, NY |
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This Mercedes-Benz showroom was originally the Hoffman Auto Showroom and is now known as Mercedes-Benz Manhattan. It was designed for Mercedes-Benz by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1954. The building was converted at that time from an apartment building into office space (Wright was only involved in the showroom space). In 2001, the building was further updated and the adjoining southern lobby space next to Wright’s portion expanded the showroom to three times its size. This glitzy Park Avenue location now also sells another luxury car – the Maybach.
Wright's showroom features a spiral-shaped, plaster-covered ramp which can only fit about five cars. On a much smaller scale, it resembles the Guggenheim Museum, which Wright designed later, in 1959. The only other building that Wright designed in New York City was a house in Staten Island. The showroom's mirrored ceiling was part of Wright's original plan but this is not the same one. It was replaced in a 1981 restoration with this more flashy one. Wright also planned to have mirrors on the floor but this proved to be too impractical. The small showroom also features a terrazzo floor and a still-functioning turntable which slowly spins the cars. Wright also designed hassocks and coffee tables for the space but I didn't notice if they are still there. For more, see these websites: 1, 2, and 3. |
| former Tunmore Oldsmobile Buffalo, NY |
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| Tunmore Oldsmobile was founded in 1923 and sold Willys-Knights, Overlands and Hudsons. The company began selling Oldsmobiles in 1931. This showroom was built in the 1930s. It appears to have been updated with siding in the 1960s or so. The used car lot across the street was developed into retail stores but the sign that was located there was saved. It is now in storage at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society museum. In 2010, Basil Automotive Group moved into this showroom. They plan to demolish the building despite the protests of many preservationists. For more, see these websites: 1 and 2. |
| Audia Motor Sales Millbrook, NY |
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| The Audia Motor Sales showroom was built in 1957. |
| Curry Chevrolet Scarsdale, NY |
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| The Curry Chevrolet showroom appears to be from the late 1940s or 1950s. For more, see this website. |
| Champion Buick Pontiac GMC Saratoga Springs, NY |
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| This building housed Champion Buick Pontiac GMC and Topper Pontiac Buick GMC before that. It has been vacant since 2009. |
| Hoselton Chevrolet East Rochester, NY |
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| This Hoselton Chevrolet showroom was built in 1964. They now sell many other makes of automobiles and are also known as the Hoselton Auto Mall. For more, see their website. |
| former Ken Wilson Chevrolet Vestal, NY |
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| The Ken Wilson Chevrolet showroom was built in 1963. The dealership became Matthews Chevrolet sometime after 2005. In 2010, the building was vacant. This style hyperbolic parabola roof was used frequently used for mid-century modern banks, churches, and other buildings including the Paul Miller dealership in Lexington, KY. |
| Penn Toyota Greenvale, NY |
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| The Penn Toyota semi-circular showroom has survived remodeling. I believe it was built in the early 1970s. For more, see their website. |
| Used Car Sales Riverhead, NY |
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| Used Car Sales has a semi-circular showroom accented with a stone tower. If there was a more formal name for the place, it wasn't apparent from their signs. This building previously housed Riverhead Ford Lincoln-Mercury but I don't know what was here originally. |
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