Nostalgia Sold Here, No Money Down

The Almanac entry the other day about Downtown car dealers, including Standard Auto, the Chrysler garage where Sunray now has their warehouse, inspired a reader to ask: "What was at 801 Walnut? Looks like it was an impressive building, now fallen into a little disrepair, and a church is selling furniture in the building as well as the one next door."

I think the church in question is called Voice of Vision Outreach Ministries, and my understanding is that their furniture thrift store has some real values. (I have no first hand knowledge, because I don't have enough cash to pay attention right now, much less buy more furniture.) Corrections are welcome, as always.

As for 801 Walnut, which is a four-story brick and terra-cotta building across the street from the post office, the first floor was most recently Progressive Music, which recently moved down to the old Rubenstein shoe building on Fifth Avenue. But originally, it was Baer Brothers Studebaker. In fact, if you carefully at the roof of the building on the Olive Street side, you'll see a circular engraving. That's the Studebaker "turning wheel" emblem. (As for "disrepair," I can't comment one way or the other, but according to county tax records, the building was recently sold to a couple from Jefferson Hills, and I've seen workmen going in and out since they bought it. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they're fixing it up. There appear to be people living in the upstairs apartments.)

Walnut Street was "Auto Row" in Our Fair City, much like West Liberty Avenue is in Dormont today. Most of the city's auto dealers were either on Walnut or within one or two blocks. Besides Baer Brothers Studebaker and Standard Auto, Eger Motors Ford was on Walnut (in the building currently used by Mon Valley Plumbing, but originally the Hippodrome theater). Booth Chevrolet (later Deveraux) was on Sixth Street behind the Penn-McKee Hotel; Palmer's Garage (the Pontiac dealer) was on Market across Seventh Avenue from St. Peter's Church; Galen & Jones De Soto-Plymouth was on (I think) Ninth Street about a block east of Walnut Street; and Hunter Cadillac was in the old W.W. Hunter Livery building on Sixth next to Hunter-Edmundson-Striffler funeral home. If I remember correctly, Spitz Auto Parts --- the junkyard --- was between Walnut and Market between 10th and 11th avenues, near the train tracks.

The other major dealers were John P. Mooney Packard (later Edsel, then Volkswagen) on Fifth Avenue at Hartman Street (there's a car wash there now); Palace Garage (the Nash dealer) on the first floor of the Palisades; and Sullivan Buick (on Lysle Boulevard where Rite Aid is now, they also had the Rambler franchise at one time). Bruce Browne Oldsmobile was on West Fifth Avenue near the Mansfield Bridge (it's an office building now).

I'm probably missing several other auto dealers. I'm not sure who the Dodge dealer was before Paul Jones picked up the franchise in the '60s, when his dealership was out on Eden Park Boulevard where S&S Transit is now.

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By the way: Regarding yesterday's Kyrgyzstan spoof, only one factoid in the piece is entirely fictional. The others are true. You could, as they say, look them up. I'll leave it to your imagination to spot the completely bogus one (though you probably have a good idea already).