Park Avenue Auto Body Inc. - 1910s-1940s - Bronx, New York


   

1910s-40s address - Park Ave Auto Body - 4269 Park Ave. Bronx, NY

4269 Park Ave. Auto Body., Inc.", and the door on the next building says "Webster Sheet Metal Works"

From the early 1900’s though the late 1940’s family members owned and operated the Park Ave. Auto Body Shop in the Bronx, NYC

Today there is a Park Avenue Auto Body, Inc. at 3884 Park Ave. Bronx, NY 10457, however it's probably not the same firm.

In the first half of last century, the Park Avenue Auto Body Shop not only did repairs and painting, but also altered vehicles.  In this case a 1940's Cadillac has been modified to accept a chair for a handicapped person. As WW II neared an end, more and more disabled veterans returned home. (1945)

Photo #1 shows inside the vehicle (you can read Packard Super Eight on the hub cap. You can also see that there is no roof (removable?) over the driver's compartment. #2 shows a ramp in place, an attendant at the ready behind the invalid's chair. #3 shows inside the Packard, with the chair in place. #4 is the back of photo #2, explaining the chair and platform, and having a name and address. (late 30s)

Also a picture of an early 40's Woody Wagon

Bohman & Schwartz of LA also specialized in handicap conversions very similar to the conversions done by Park Ave. Both firms are known to have made station wagon conversions as well.

During the 1930s and early 1940s Park Avenue converted a few sedans to rear-loading funeral vehicles through the installation of a rear hatch and flat load floor with integral rollers and bier pins. Have also seen an unusual Dodge flatbed 1/2 ton pickup built specially for J.P. Linahan, Inc. a Metro NY funeral supply house active in the 1920s-40s. The flatbed could be used to transport floral tributes as well as caskets and other equipment to the graveside.

 

    For more information please read:

The Professional Car (Quarterly Journal of the Professional Car Society)

Gregg D. Merksamer - Professional Cars: Ambulances, Funeral Cars and Flower Cars

Thomas A. McPherson - American Funeral Cars & Ambulances Since 1900

Carriage Museum of America - Horse-Drawn Funeral Vehicles: 19th Century Funerals

Carriage Museum of America -  Horse Drawn - Military, Civilian, Veterinary - Ambulances

Gunter-Michael Koch - Bestattungswagen im Wandel der Zeit

Walt McCall & Tom McPherson - Classic American Ambulances 1900-1979: Photo Archive

Walt McCall & Tom McPherson - Classic American Funeral Vehicles 1900-1980 Photo Archive

Walter M. P. McCall - The American Ambulance 1900-2002

Walter M.P. McCall - American Funeral Vehicles 1883-2003

Michael L. Bromley & Tom Mazza - Stretching It: The Story of the Limousine

Richard J. Conjalka - Classic American Limousines: 1955 Through 2000 Photo Archive

Richard J. Conjalka - Stretch Limousines 1928-2001 Photo Archive

Thomas A. McPherson - Eureka: The Eureka Company: a complete history

Thomas A. McPherson - Superior: The complete history

Thomas A. McPherson - Flxible: The Complete History

Thomas A. McPherson - Miller-Meteor: The Complete History

Robert R. Ebert  - Flxible: A History of the Bus and the Company

Hearses - Automobile Quarterly Vol 36 No 3

Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Car

Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Era

Beverly Rae Kimes - Packard: A History of the Motorcar and Company

Beverly Rae Kimes & Henry Austin Clark Jr. - Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942

Richard Burns Carson - The Olympian Cars

Raymond A. Katzell - The Splendid Stutz

Marc Ralston - Pierce Arrow

Brooks T. Brierley - There Is No Mistaking a Pierce Arrow

Brooks T. Brierley - Auburn, Reo, Franklin and Pierce-Arrow Versus Cadillac, Chrysler, Lincoln and Packard

Brooks T. Brierley - Magic Motors 1930

Nick Georgano - The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile: Coachbuilding

John Gunnell - Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975

James M. Flammang & Ron Kowalke - Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1976-1999

Daniel D. Hutchins - Wheels Across America: Carriage Art & Craftsmanship

Marian Suman-Hreblay - Dictionary of World Coachbuilders and Car Stylists

Michael Lamm and Dave Holls - A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design

Thomas E. Bonsall - The Lincoln Motorcar: Sixty Years of Excellence

Fred Roe - Duesenberg: The Pursuit of Perfection

Arthur W. Soutter - The American Rolls-Royce

John Webb De Campi - Rolls-Royce in America

Hugo Pfau - The Custom Body Era

Hugo Pfau - The Coachbult Packard

Griffith Borgeson - Cord: His Empire His Motor Cars

Don Butler - Auburn Cord Duesenberg

George H. Dammann - 90 Years of Ford

George H. Dammann & James K. Wagner - The Cars of Lincoln-Mercury

Thomas A. MacPherson - The Dodge Story

F. Donald Butler - Plymouth-Desoto Story

Fred Crismon - International Trucks

George H. Dammann - Seventy Years of Chrysler

Walter M.P. McCall - 80 Years of Cadillac LaSalle

Maurice D. Hendry - Cadillac, Standard of the World: The complete seventy-year history

George H. Dammann & James A. Wren - Packard

Dennis Casteele - The Cars of Oldsmobile

Terry B. Dunham & Lawrence R. Gustin - Buick: A Complete History

George H. Dammann - Seventy Years of Buick

George H. Dammann - 75 Years of Chevrolet

John Gunnell - Seventy-Five Years of Pontiac-Oakland

 



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