Past and Present: Montrose Pontiac in Williamsburg

A look at Brooklyn, then and now.

Most of us walk down our commercial streets on our way to shops, restaurants and businesses generally without a clue as to what may have been in these buildings before we showed up. That holds true in most neighborhoods, but nowhere is the transition more intriguing than on Broadway, as it winds through Williamsburg, Bushwick and Bedford Stuyvesant.

Broadway was the main street of the Eastern District, which encompassed parts of all three neighborhoods. I often highlight the 19th century activities that took place in the area, but much of its commercial history took place in the 20th century. Before the riots of 1977, Broadway, under the constant shadow of the el, was one stop shopping, with stores and businesses of every description and nature, as well as theaters, restaurants and banks. There were even car showrooms and dealerships crowded onto the busy thoroughfare.

This building, 446-450 Broadway, was one of them. In the early 1950s, it was home to Montrose Pontiac. I will be the first to tell you that the 1950s are not my favorite era, but hey, Montrose Pontiac? Of course it caught my eye. There wasn’t a whole lot of information available on line, but here’s what we’ve got:

Montrose Pontiac first shows up in the Brooklyn papers in 1936. At that time, they were located down the street at 381 Broadway. From the ads, it appears that they sold used cars. A Mr. Silvers was the man to see. By 1951, the company had moved to 450 Broadway, on the corner of Penn Street. This was a much better location, with a corner lot that enabled them to spread back along Penn with an auto repair shop. Their one-story dealership building on the corner was joined with a 19th century four story storefront and tenement building next door.

The 1950s postcard shows the two buildings in two different photos combined on the postcard. One shows the length of the corner building, with gas pumps and a Mobil emblem and sign, along with the Montrose Pontiac signage. The building continued down the street, joining another Mobile service bay. The Broadway side of the dealership isn’t shown that well, probably because it’s hard to get a good shot of anything on Broadway because of the el. But from the side, we can see the corner building had plate glass showroom windows, with cars inside the showroom, and large signage announcing Montrose Pontiac. The four story building looks to have been covered with signage as well.

Ads in Brooklyn newspapers run quite a lot in 1951-54, and then stop. Ads for Montrose Pontiac continue from 1957-1964, but in Binghamton, NY, not Brooklyn. Perhaps the company moved out of the city, as did many other businesses and people during this time. Why the name Montrose? Who knows? Perhaps the company actually started on Montrose Avenue, and then moved to one location on Broadway, before moving across the street from the end of Montrose Avenue again. Finding out means pouring through old phone books and business directories, which unfortunately, are not digitized.

As for today? It always amazed me that many of these old auto dealerships’ buildings still survive. We see this in all parts of Brooklyn. The building may have other uses now, but the structures survive. A long one story building probably has little chance of surviving the New Brooklyn forever, but now, it’s in use as a health clinic, and perhaps other offices. The buildings are now clad in modern looking metallic siding. Interestingly the faux stone finish of the original showroom remains.

GMAP