Since I attended the Old Spanish Trail Centennial Celebration in Mobile, Alabama last week, I've been thinking about how the Good Roads Movement affected commercial architecture. Tracking down relevant structures requires mapping OST road beds and cross-checking Sanborn data sets, building plans and historic newspaper accounts.
The route -- highlighted above -- took westbound travelers through the Crescent City along Bayou Sauvage/Gentilly Road to North Broad (via Paris) on to Canal, St. Charles, Broadway and ultimately to the Westwego-Walnut Street ferry.(1)
If you are interested in learning more about the OST Centennial and/or wish to become involved in the planning process, click here.
St. Charles Avenue
1400
M.G. Bernin Motor Trucks (1919)
1423
Motor Car Service Company, Inc. (1920)
1701-11
Abbott Motor Company {Two buildings -- Packard Showroom & Apartments/Showrooms} (1920)
1820
Packard New Orleans Company (1929)
2001
Abbott Automobile Company (1920)
St. Charles Street
700
Fairchild Motor Car Company (1917)
706
Woodring-Hamilton Car Company (1916)
714
Ellis Motor Company [formerly King Motor Company] (1920)
721
United Motor Car Company (1920)
726
Safety Tire Repair Company (1916)
728
Hotel Orleans (altered for this use in 1917-1918)
734
Demack Motor Car Company (1918)
735
Herbert E. Woodward Tires (1915)
741
Capital City Auto Company (1915)
742
Moon Agency (1914)
749
L.A.M. Motor Company (1918)
750
B.F. Goodrich Company New Orleans Branch (1914)
752
Abbott Auto Company "Used Car" Department (1919)
759
Stoutz Motor Car Company (1917)
760-762
Willys-Overland Company (1914)
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (1916)
Freeport & Mexican Fuel Oil Company (1917)
829
Capital City Auto Company (1919)
And others that were very near to the OST:
Baronne Street
601-603
Charles E. Miller New Orleans Branch [Automobile Sales] (1910)
615-621
Shuler Auto Supply Company Inc. (1919)
618
Charles E. Miller New Orleans Branch [Automobile Sales] (1910)
615-621
Shuler Auto Supply Company Inc. (1919)
618
M. Zilberman Show Room (1918)
702-716
Abbott Cycle Company (1906)
{They also sold automobile gloves}
Abbott Automobile Company (1908)
751-761
New Orleans Chevrolet Company (1926)
801
Brown Tube Company (1914)
Model Motor Truck Company, Inc. (1917)
702-716
Abbott Cycle Company (1906)
{They also sold automobile gloves}
Abbott Automobile Company (1908)
751-761
New Orleans Chevrolet Company (1926)
801
Brown Tube Company (1914)
Model Motor Truck Company, Inc. (1917)
Fairchild Auto Company (1910)
Howard Avenue
822
Bernstein Glenny Motor Car Company (1917)
828-832
Lyons-Barton Motor Car Company (1915)
{Constructed using Kahn System}
Julia Street
611
B.P. Braud, Inc. Cord Tire Repairing (1920)
(1)An earlier route kept autoists on the east side of the Mississippi along the River Road.
(2)"Big Auto Tire Company to Make Crescent City Its Distributing Point." The Sunday States 21 May 1916.
Images above: Old Spanish Trail Association. Old Spanish Trail Road Map Southern Louisiana. October 1924. Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Digitally enhanced.
"New Orleans to Have 'Automobile Row' by September 15." The New Orleans Item 12 June 1913.
"The New St. Charles Auto Row." The New Orleans Item 5 October 1913.
Abbott Automobile Company, 2001 St. Charles Avenue. As it appears in The New Orleans Item 12 December 1920.
Fairchild Motor Company, 700 St. Charles Street. As it appears in The New Orleans Item 8 July 1917.
822
Bernstein Glenny Motor Car Company (1917)
828-832
Lyons-Barton Motor Car Company (1915)
{Constructed using Kahn System}
Julia Street
611
B.P. Braud, Inc. Cord Tire Repairing (1920)
(1)An earlier route kept autoists on the east side of the Mississippi along the River Road.
(2)"Big Auto Tire Company to Make Crescent City Its Distributing Point." The Sunday States 21 May 1916.
Images above: Old Spanish Trail Association. Old Spanish Trail Road Map Southern Louisiana. October 1924. Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Digitally enhanced.
"New Orleans to Have 'Automobile Row' by September 15." The New Orleans Item 12 June 1913.
"The New St. Charles Auto Row." The New Orleans Item 5 October 1913.
Abbott Automobile Company, 2001 St. Charles Avenue. As it appears in The New Orleans Item 12 December 1920.
Fairchild Motor Company, 700 St. Charles Street. As it appears in The New Orleans Item 8 July 1917.
6 comments:
The M. Zilberman Show Room is probably one of my favorite building in the city if not the entire country.
Would the Packard Dealership at 1820 St. Charles be associated with this list?
http://assets.hemmings.com/uimage/3697694-750-601.jpg
Yes! Thank you. I will add it!
I had read somewhere that 1820 St. Charles was designed by Albert Kahn. Would that be Albet Kahn's only work in New Orleans?
Kahn did it in conjunction with a local engineer named Percy Kuhn. I'm not sure actually... it's the only set of plans we have in the SEAA that bear his name...
Oh the poor 2001 St. Charles Abbott Automobile Company. Never would have recognized that building behind the EIFS balcony.
True. But it is amazing how many of them 1) there were and 2) that are still there. Must have been the automobile showroom mecca of the South in the teens and twenties.
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