Cool photo,Herb!
The Ford sign does not look like the "standard" Ford Motor Company sign used in early agencies.
Must not have had a very good sales staff. All I see is horse and buggies on the street. I enlarged the picture because the sign looked like it said nord but when you enlarge it a tree branch is covering up the top of the letter "F".
I love the solid wood wheel cart. I bet that was a smooth ride!
Dennis can you show the close up of the Ford sign?
Thanks
Herb
Here it is today.
Here's the sign enlarged as best as I could get it with so little pixels to work with.
It was much more beautiful in the past.
Chris,
Why is the upper part of the building on the left above the pickup fuzzed out?
A drip of water on the lens?
Could the sign in the old picture be very early, like pre T?
It may have been prettier but I'll bet it didn't smell so good!
The possibility exists that the "Ford" sign in this photo has nothing to do with Ford automobiles.
Also, it is interesting how completely Monroe Ave has changed. Studying the current Google street view (on Google), I was unable to correlate any building present now with the buildings present in the old image.
Herb - "Great old picture"! Only thing is, as much as I'd like to believe that's a "Ford" sign, I'm not so sure. Hard to tell if that music store is right next door, or if it's part of the business that has the "?ORD" sign,......??? Still,....a great picture at any rate,.......harold
The jog in the curb on the right is still there. It is probably railroad right of way property and will always be narrower than the rest of the street.
The FORD sign kind of reminds me of logos used in Mustang advertising, or a Mustang gas cap.
When I found it I thought it said The celebrated Ford automobiles
I don't think the sign says FORD nor does the rest of the sign relate to automobiles. RORD seems to be a valid sir name.
Herb,
I can't get the enlargement to copy to my computer. I just hit the enlargement icon on the lower corner of my screen. I still think it is tree branches blocking some of the letter.
Ken,
I don't believe the sign says RORD because the second "R" is upper case block lettering so I don't believe they would have used lower case lettering at the front of the sign.
Perhaps he made his own sign and didn't buy the winged Ford sign.
Here's an enlargement. Now I wonder what the smaller sign above the horse says...
Andrew
Thank you Andrew!
Some where I seem to remember the phrase "Celebrated Ford Automobiles" in an advertisement. I am sure it was in an early magazine or newspaper ad. I wonder if this sign was an 'Official" Ford sign or a dealer made one.
Is there a list of dealers? If so it should be possible to see who was a dealer in Charleton Michigan early on.
Fun stuff!
Well done, Andrew.
How did you crop and enlarge the image to such resolution? I was unable do so using the image that Herb posted.
Neil
"Home of the Celebrated Ford Automobiles" was painted on the both long sides of the Piquette Plant. This picture of Clara Bryant Ford and Myrle Clarkson Driving 1905 Ford Model N at Piquette Avenue Plant from The Henry Ford's collections shows it clearly.
Larger version of this and many other photos are available.
How far is Carleton from Detroit?
Thank you Roger.
So in essence this could be one of the first Ford dealerships?
Time for someone like Rob to jump in and see if there are any newspaper ads or stories on file in the area.
Has anyone looked at the car behind Clara & Edsel? To me it looks like a later touring car, certainly the top is a touring and the rear fenders are straight out like the early Ts.
I think these two buildings are on the left in the original picture, beyond the solid-wheel wagon. The one with the Pepsi sign is slightly set back. There is still a church across the street, although it is a different building. I think the modern picture that ChrisO posted is looking the wrong way down the street. It looks to me that the railroad crossing was different then (different angle) and maybe in a slightly different place.
I kept thinking there HAD to be at least one building still there.
Hi Neil. I was able to find a higher resolution scan on the internet. Quite often these old photo postcards were mass printed. This one was - a google image search for "Monroe Ave Carleton 1911" showed a number of different scans. The clearest one I found is at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/upnorthmemories/9506383582/
Regards, Andrew
Andrew – thanks for sharing where you found a higher resolution copy. Glad to hear things going well with you.
Tony -- there is a larger size of the Piquette photo for download at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fordmotorcompany/2680401102/sizes/m/ called Flickr photo page. And I think it is courtesy of the Ford Motor Company. You can Zoom in and see many additional details. Below is zoomed in on the touring car. Note it has an open chain drive rear axle and fully elliptical springs on both sides of the rear axle. From the thread at: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/50893/79182.html?1232470024 Rob Heyen shared it was a Model F Ford. Based on the rear axle being the chain drive and having the brake drums at the wheels it most likely was a Model F Ford. [ref: page 16 of 36 chapter 8 “Mechanical Systems” of “Pate’s Early Ford Automobile Encyclopedia” available from the author at: http://www.earlyfordcars.info/ -- them Model C had a similar chain drive axle but without the brake drums.] But – other cars from that time period also had chain drive rear axles and rear wheel brake drums. There is always a remote chance that someone else drove their car to the factory. At that same link they discuss the photo was a publicity shot, so Ford probably would have made sure that no non-Fords were in the photo which further increases the probability that it is a Model F Ford. In the photo below there appears to be a light colored line almost parallel to the rear axle but sloping very gently down as it goes to the brake drum. I believe that is the white line from the building and NOT part of the car.
Herb – yes there are listing for dealers [called agents back then]. But there is only a partial listing as some of the records have been lost over the years. One source is Trent’s Early Ford Database – and there are other sources at the Benson Ford Archives that could also be checked.
Respectfully submitted,
Hap l9l5 cut off
On the other thread about unloading cars from a boxcar, there is a car with a dealer plate and a radiator badge that looks very similar to the sign in this thread. Could someone get a better resolution shot of the radiator badge and see what it says? Could it be the same dealer?
Jeff,
It does look similar. I wonder if anyone (Trent?) knows if this was an early promotional logo for Ford?
Thanks
Hal, very informative. Ford Model F
Tony
I found a picture of a Model F from Dave Dunlavy web site, seems very similar.
How does the diff work with a chain drive ?? ... do both wheels turn at the same rate even when turning, or will one slip ??
David.
Should work the same, but with a chain instead of ring and pinion. The spider is inside that little case between the two axle housings.
See also http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/first-ford.htm it has a nice illustration of the 1903-04 Model A that shows how the engine is mounted transversely and the chain runs from the transmission output to the rear axle.
Respectfully submitted,
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Great reading thanks Hap
Mark