Before & after vehicles and locations

SE Belmont & 28th, 1940

 

Illi’s Auto Service began operations in 1946 and still is in business today in the same building located at 401 West Huron St. in Ann Arbor, MI. This set of images was taken for use in an advertisement placed in the Ann Arbor News on December 28, 1959, and may have been used to show off Illi’s new 1960 Chevrolet pick up truck equipped with a towing boom. The Marathon gasoline pumps and the chimney are gone and a Ford has replaced the Chevrolets, although Illi’s Auto Service is visible in this 2018 Google street view image.

 

Pompton Lakes, New Jersey

 

Nice to see an area where things haven't changed all that much. We see so many locations in the US where everything has just been was obliterated over the past few decades and the change was not for the better.

 

You’re exactly right annap, Orthmann and I beat that drum all the time how these towns teaming with activity have all but shuttered those small restaurants and theaters for Wal Marts, Mega theaters and Applebee’s. It’s a sad reminder how America has shifted its habits. Not making a commentary on if that’s good or bad, but those ‘50’s pictures sure make you feel like we’ve lost a little intimacy as a country.

 

And lost it because of money and economy of scale.

 

University Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota

 

Hollywood Boulevard and Highland, 1940