Search This Blog

Saturday, June 02, 2012

1941: "NOBODY BEATS KEATS!"

A familiar sight for many of us who remember the Trenton of the 40's and 50's. If you look closely, you might see a 1940 NASH in Ira Keats' used car lot. That was the car of my dreams! My brother Bud bought a coupe in 1945 and it was all quality. The fenders on the thing were made of really thick steel. Nash's "Weather Eye"system was quite efficient. The dash was trimmed with gray plastic and the technology at the time didn't account for the heat of the sun pouring through the windshield. As a result, I remember the plastic trim on the dash becoming a bit warped. However, it was an incredible vehicle. Ford had the push button starter, Nash had a steel tab on the clutch pedal which engaged the starter. Ray Paskiewicz, you will have a ball with this graphic! Also in the photo, R.C. Maxwell's E.State Street headquarters is seen in the background. To the right is Trenton's venerable "Crossley Machine Company." Ahh the memories!

rayfromvillapark said...

Hi Tom, What are you trying to do, send me into orbit. I'm trying to hold back my enthusiasm, but it's spilling out all over my keyboard. I am blown away, by the fact that there is a Dodge-Plymouth dealership in the brick building in the foreground. My earliest memory of this building, is when it housed a Hudson dealership in the right half, and Trenton Packard, occupied the left half. We can't specifically date this photo as 1942, but a clue is the dealer tag DB 25 on the 1942 Plymouth Special DeLuxe sedan. It was either a brand new demonstrator, or a car being used by the dealer during the war. The Ford parked on the sidewalk, looks almost new, and it is a 1941 model.
Keats, held the Studebaker franchise until 1955, and then switched to Ford. The Studebaker Champion in front of Keats building, is a 1942 model. Most of the cars to the left are Dodges and the two cars heading East on State, are 1941 and 1940 Plymouth's,with a 1941 Olds 98 coming over the bridge. Please publish more of these. This is a gold mine. rayfromvillapark

SJBill said...

The three buildings on hte left are still standing, just before the RR E. State St Pennsy RR overpass between Chestnut and Monmouth.

I think it was about here where Ernie Kovacs went down to the tracks with a back pack remote trasnmitter and broadcast the passing of a fast moving train by throwing the entire rig under the train. He lost his local gig (was it WTTM?) and moved to Philly.

Anonymous said...

My father in law had a letter signed by George Romney when he was President of Nash, later to become Governor or Michigan. He bought a brand new Nash that had a horrible leak in the trunks rubber seal and it would have a few inches of water sloshing around after a heavy rain.

In his infinite wisdom as President of Nash, he directed the dealer to drill three holes in the trunk to let the water out. Despite that they did have some comfortable seats that folded back and accorded two "adults" to simply fold back the seats and put a few pillows and blankets from the trunk snooze away. I guess that was "if" drilling the holes worked?

"Stude" was way ahead and that Golden Hawk was a sight to behold. Keeping cars and dates in perspective, they should have been in the "hall of fame" along with the like of the "E" Jag; that was one sleek design for it's day. Now that Nash Metropolitan was a car of memories too. I better stop there shouldn't I?

Ed Millerick

Anonymous said...

1940 Ford (Siebert) low mile original version of the hearse but it has been "toned down" more to a "sedan delivery" version that without thinking I almost made the 400 mile drive to Freeport ME since his cars (he advertises in Hemmings as a regular), but this buggy is immaculate and a real but at $49,000 us out of my range and are usually much more modest. He also has a low mileage 1954 Nash Metro for a cool $9,000, The all original 239 "flat head" Ford is probably worth it but he only reason that a Nash would be "low miles" would be that it took a lot of work to get "high miles" on it.

Ed Millerick

5 comments:

rayfromvillapark said...

Hi Tom, What are you trying to do, send me into orbit. I'm trying to hold back my enthusiasm, but it's spilling out all over my keyboard. I am blown away, by the fact that there is a Dodge-Plymouth dealership in the brick building in the foreground. My earliest memory of this building, is when it housed a Hudson dealership in the right half, and Trenton Packard, occupied the left half. We can't specifically date this photo as 1942, but a clue is the dealer tag DB 25 on the 1942 Plymouth Special DeLuxe sedan. It was either a brand new demonstrator, or a car being used by the dealer during the war. The Ford parked on the sidewalk, looks almost new, and it is a 1941 model.
Keats, held the Studebaker franchise until 1955, and then switched to Ford. The Studebaker Champion in front of Keats building, is a 1942 model. Most of the cars to the left are Dodges and the two cars heading East on State, are 1941 and 1940 Plymouth's,with a 1941 Olds 98 coming over the bridge. Please publish more of these. This is a gold mine. rayfromvillapark

SJBill said...

The three buildings on hte left are still standing, just before the RR E. State St Pennsy RR overpass between Chestnut and Monmouth.

I think it was about here where Ernie Kovacs went down to the tracks with a back pack remote trasnmitter and broadcast the passing of a fast moving train by throwing the entire rig under the train. He lost his local gig (was it WTTM?) and moved to Philly.

Anonymous said...

My father in law had a letter signed by George Romney when he was President of Nash, later to become Governor or Michigan. He bought a brand new Nash that had a horrible leak in the trunks rubber seal and it would have a few inches of water sloshing around after a heavy rain.

In his infinite wisdom as President of Nash, he directed the dealer to drill three holes in the trunk to let the water out. Despite that they did have some comfortable seats that folded back and accorded two "adults" to simply fold back the seats and put a few pillows and blankets from the trunk snooze away. I guess that was "if" drilling the holes worked?

"Stude" was way ahead and that Golden Hawk was a sight to behold. Keeping cars and dates in perspective, they should have been in the "hall of fame" along with the like of the "E" Jag; that was one sleek design for it's day. Now that Nash Metropolitan was a car of memories too. I better stop there shouldn't I?

Ed Millerick

Anonymous said...

1940 Ford (Siebert) low mile original version of the hearse but it has been "toned down" more to a "sedan delivery" version that without thinking I almost made the 400 mile drive to Freeport ME since his cars (he advertises in Hemmings as a regular), but this buggy is immaculate and a real but at $49,000 us out of my range and are usually much more modest. He also has a low mileage 1954 Nash Metro for a cool $9,000, The all original 239 "flat head" Ford is probably worth it but he only reason that a Nash would be "low miles" would be that it took a lot of work to get "high miles" on it.

Ed Millerick

Randy Riggs said...

Reese Buick owned by Frank Reese later was in this building. He sold out the franchise to Coleman and moved his Buick operation to Easton, Pa. I'm sure old time Trenton folks from the 1950s will remember Reese Buick