“Packard was an American luxury-type automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last in 1958.”
Richmond Terrace, West Brighton
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The Packard Motor Car Co. of New York was located at 1861 Broadway in Manhattan, and the largest Fractory Branch in the USA. The Packard Co. export Branch was located here as well.
In 1935 according to the factory directory I have, their Brooklyn dealers consisted of the main branch at 1050 Atlantic Avenue; the Narrows Motor Corp. at 6400 Forth Avenue; Parkway Motors Inc, at 1812 Bay Parkway; and Passaro Brothers, 2625 Bedford Ave. There were also extensive dealerships in Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island as well. I have owned three pre WWII Packards, and my current one is a 1935 senior series club sedan. They were and still are very fine motor cars indeed. Their motto was “Ask the man that owns one” .
Ask the Man who drives one!
Yeah,but after the war they were packards in name only.No more quality
Packard died the death of a thousand cuts (self inflicted, mostly): they came late to the OHV V-8 party, & the Studebaker merger was a humiliation that resulted in the 1957-58 “Packardbakers” . The Studebakers of the era weren’t competitive to begin with, so badge engineering them as Packards guarenteed their demise after the 1958 model year. Remember them as they were prior to WWII.
I pass by this building often (Richmond Terrace and Dongan Street) and it always makes me smile. Wonder if there are any Packards on Staten Island that were originally bought at this dealer?
Do you know the address of the building? I ask because my Grandfather lived at 1767 Richmond Terrace in the 1940’s and I’m wondering where that is in relation to the Packard building.
There was a large Packard dealership where the Audubon ballroom was on upper Broadway across from the medical center. My wife grew up in Inwwod and her uncle Jack worked there as a boy before world war two.
Packard made Roll-Royce Merlin aircraft engines during the war and received a commendation for quality from Rolls-Royce. The company also made a huge amount of money from this. Packard was in excellent financial condition at this time and was purchased to provide a source of tax losses for the purchasing company. This and bad design choices led it to become part of Studebaker and, with them, fell into oblivion in the early sixties.
Love this building and its faded beauty.
Ape Shall Not Kill Ape is in the blogroll.
Have you been to the packard building in Inwood near fort Tryon park, manhattan
I’d just like to point out that in this post (https://forgotten-ny.com/2009/08/grymes-hill-staten-island/), the projects you saw were low-income housing, but it wasn’t managed by NYCHA. The neighborhood by Vanderbilt Avenue is known as Park Hill, and I’m pretty sure they’re just called the Park Hill Apartments.
[…] at Kevin Walsh’s Forgotten-NY! […]
My grandparents lived on Staten Island (as did I) and bought a new Packard in 55 or 56. It was a black and white Clipper 4 door. I believe it was a 56. I imagine He bought it at the West Brighton Dealership as we lived in West Brighton.
The Studebaker dealer was at 201 Bay St. in those days.