Vintage Caddy dealerships

[jwwseville60]

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Rm_gVsrsg

[jwwseville60]

"Its a deal then?"

"Well...I dont know. It's kinda unusual and all. I mean, trading in my wife for a Caddy seems morally wrong somehow. Mmmm...she does hate me though. Oh what the heck, it's a deal, Mac!"

"Don't you worry. I'll get started on the divorce and car paperwork. You won't regret it!"

[Ralph Messina CLC 4937]

John,

Great piece,  thanks. It's from a different time of style and grace when you could personalize your car. Now you select from what's available on a website and take the price they give you......Not even a four-color brochure. Not all change is progress.

[tcom2027]

Yeah, a lot of legacy Cadillac dealerships were closed by GM in 2009-2010. Dahlgleish Cadillac in Detroit which was three blocks from the GM building on Grand Boulevard in Detroit and the last Cadillac dealer in the City of  Detroit was axed. It had been in business fifty five years at the time of the cut.

The dealership  was in an Albert Kahn building, designed in 1924 and once owned by Cadillac. I believe it was demolished and a Wayne State University Med center is now on the site. IIRC it had black and white  terrazzo tile floors imported from Italy in the main showroom.

Good news, a real legacy dealership, Coulter Cadillac, in Phoenix survived the cut. It's been around since '41 at least as that was where my '41 coupe was delivered. They are supportive of the hobby.

tony 

[Carfreak]

Dagleish Cadillac was a stop on one of the tours during the 2002 GN.  Interesting article about the history of Charlie's Nash / Charlie's Cadillac & Oldsmobile / Dagleish Cadillac / Detroit Auto Dealers Association and more:   https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-bhl-2013077

The building was highly renovated as mentioned in the link above and an expansion added too - Mr. Kahn might not recognize it if he saw it now as the Wayne State University Integrated Bioscience Center. We've heard a blood sample is collected from every newborn child and stored here:  https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3677554,-83.0694706,324a,35y,219.41h,39.39t/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

The Dagleigh's were frustrated and unhappy about Cadillac's efforts to have them invest 'middle 6 figures' into renovating the dealership and that's when they decided to close up and sell.  When the fixtures, tools, equipment, furniture and other remaining items were auctioned in early 2010 we toured the building from the basement to the roof (but didn't climb the tower).   

The last pic is views of the GM and Fisher Buildings in the New Center area - West Grand Boulevard.

A friend and former CLC member worked there during the 1990s and directed many of the vintage dealer signs to us at nominal prices. During the auction we noticed two ceiling mounted motorized fixtures for our signs were still there which we were able to obtain. 

[Carfreak]

More pics of Dagleish - inside the service areas which was located on I think two floors. 

Janet Steinard's brother was a Senior Mechanic at Dagleish. 

Also some views of the crazy elevator - you had to be quick and sure when hopping on and off.  OSHA would have loved it (NOT!)

[Carfreak]

And looking across Cass Avenue you could see this beautiful building.   

[Barry M Wheeler #2189]

Sue, that elevator is similar to the one in the I G Farben building in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The building was spared Allied bombing so  it could be used as a headquarters after the war. I went there once when on courier duty from Berlin. Our unit had daily top secret info that could not be trusted to be flown out, so all the spec fives were assigned armed courier duty and one took the train each night through East Germany to Frankfurt to deliver the material to the NSA.

And the elevator was tricky to hop onto. I didn't fall down, but was hoping I wouldn't. I was given a puny Chief's Special instead of a .45 Colt which I would have preferred to have to defend my country's secrets. We had started out with the .45 but some idiot let a round off when clearing his weapon. And so they thought we would be "safer" with the .38.

[tcom2027]

Barry and Car Freak

Thanks for the walk down memory lane, expanding on the history of the dealership and the photos. Outstanding. I remember reading in one or another histories of Cadillac that the Kahn Building on Woodward was once a Cadillac Factory.

In November'68,fresh two years out of the Marine Corps I was living on W. Hancock and Cass across from Old Main and working at Woodward an Eight Mile. That year I rode a bicycle to work in the summer on nice days. John R north and Woodward south. A half hour or so of excitement and stark terror. I remember passing the dealership daily and seeing the the black and white terrazzo floor in the show room as I rode by. Beautiful classily designed building from the twenties. Same for the Art Institute a classic Beaux Arts design built in 1925-7(?). I know I;m forgetting the Detroit Public Library. But this isn't a tour Grey Lines tour of Detroit so I'll stop.

I was wrong in my post about the demolition, rather than a makeover. Thanks for correcting that error. The University has purchased a lot of the buildings along the Cass Corridor and north converting them into office and classrooms. Good thing is they have preserved many classic buildings from the turn of the century and later. But razing others. Progress, I guess....

tony

 

 

[jaxops]

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Rm_gVsrsg

It looks like they are thinking: "Where is everybody?"  "Maybe we should smoke!"

[59-in-pieces]

It's funny that several photos were of Casa De Cadillac in Sherman Oaks, Calif.
That is the dealership that my Dad and his 2 brothers and I purchased our Cadillacs over many many years.
In fact, Shirly (?) Moon was the same sales lady that sold the cars to us over the years, including my XLR after my Dad passed and she retired.
Only one departure, in 1965 from LaRue Thomas of Thomas Cadillac in down town L.A. of one of the Motorama cars.
He has since passed at 93.

Oh, memories.

Have fun,
Steve B.

[hmbmw21]

Thanks for sharing this.!! This is where Plastic was'nt even an Option.!!!

[Bessy]

Thanks for sharing this pictoral history!
mark & Bessy
34742

[Barry M Wheeler #2189]

I don't have a picture, but the last time I was in Lafayette,(IN), the building that housed Kendrick Buick/Cadillac/Nissan where I worked '92-'95 was no more. The used car lot had previously been taken out to put a new chicken outlet and evidently, the building that housed the dealership was no longer needed as a parts/service outlet by the Nissan store anymore.

When Dan built the dealership, across Creasy Lane was a horse farm and everyone said that he'd have trouble selling cars "way out in the country." This was in about 1969 or so. Now SR 26 is wall to wall fast food places.

[59-in-pieces]

hmbmw21

I don't know what prompted the "plastic" comment.
But, I can distinctly remember my Dad when we got the 65 home describing the car as that damn plastic car - pointing here there and everywhere at the plastic where good old steel once made up the interiors of his previous Cads.

Have fun,
Steve B.

[Barry M Wheeler #2189]

It's funny that you mentioned a '65. I was sitting in a new '65 Fleetwood during new model days in the showroom at the old Hoosier Cadillac dealership in Indy and thought the same thing.