“Alexander Motors, 2037 Main Street. They sold the Henry J and the Kaiser Frazer. Notice the sign, it says they will give away a Muntz TV. 1950.” LS
The banner hanging on the front of the dealership advertises a Free 20 inch Muntz TV with every Henry J purchase and there is a row of TV’s in the showroom window. This location was just North of 10th. Street on the East side of Main Street in Jacksonville’s Springfield neighborhood. The business was located on what is now an empty lot that is part of the Kirby-Smith Middle School campus. The corner of the roof of one of the still standing Kirby-Smith buildings can be seen in the right of the photograph behind the Alexander Motors building. For additional information about the Henry J line of cars you can view this previous post, and a previous post on Muntz TV’s can be found here.
Tags: 001841, Alexander Motors, Automobile, business, Henry J, historic phtotograph, Kaiser, Kirby-Smith, Main Street, Muntz TV, vintage photography
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In later years, although I’m not sure when, this building became the first studio and offices of “educational” TV station WJCT. The front windows of the building were bricked in and the service bay was turned into the studio. Back then, commercial garages did not have hydraulic lifts to service the cars from underneath. There were “pits” or small narrow holes dug into the ground where the mechanic could work under the car which was parked at ground level. These pits had to be filled in to level out the floor when creating the TV studio. It worked fine for years but the fill materials began to settle and several sizable depressions appeared in the studio floor in the early 1970s. Camera operators at the time occasionally moved the cameras across the floor while on air, a move called “trucking.” When the cameras rolled across one of the depressions, though, the picture on TV would wobble a bit. I know; I did it more than once. -DJQ
Thanks Danny for the additional history. Always great to hear from those that were there. Bob Self/Vintage Jacksonville
This building was built by my grandfather M.F.Keys. He leveled two houses and used the lot as a used car lot during the war. In 1947 he and two others bought a Kaiser Frazer Distributorship and built this showroom. It was called Triangle Motors. Unfortunately the business did not last long, maybe 18 months. I’m not familiar with when/how it became Alexander Motors as shown in this photograph but it had to be post 1950. I have some family movies of it when it first opened.
I remember when it was the Chanel 7 building. It no longer exists today.