Lost AMC Dealerships: Etobicoke, Ontario; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Franklin, Indiana

It’s been a while since we’ve taken the time to explore some old AMC dealerships, and thankfully, we’ve received materials on a few of them in recent days. We’ll start with some circa 1961 photos of Westgrove Rambler-Hillman in the Etobicoke section of Toronto, forwarded to us by Kit Foster, who found them on the City of Toronto Archives website. He also discovered, over at Torontoist.com, that in 1965, the dealership was razed to make way for the Islington subway station that now occupies the northwest corner of Islington and Bloor. Google Maps doesn’t have a street view, but Bing Maps has a bird’s eye view. There’s obviously no mention of Westgrove on the 1983 AMC dealership list, nor does Havekost seem to have a Nash listing that matches Westgrove.

Next, Eddie Stakes sent along copies of a 1973 dealership flyer for Schamberger Rambler in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that he received from a relative of Bill Schamberger.

While AMC worked hard to change image to “new” American Motors thru their dealerships (note 70 style vertical pillar 12 foot sign at driveway, and big horizontal sign on front and above Service bay) many dealerships continued to play on customer brand loyalty and used the Rambler name well into the 1970s as evidenced by this flyer.

Schamberger Motor Company does appear on the Havekost Nash dealership list, with a founding date of 1941 and an address of 2938 First Ave. E. The address on the flyer is 717 Third Ave. SE, and Schamberger doesn’t appear at all on the 1983 AMC dealership list. It’s difficult to tell what’s at the first address (Google Maps, Bing Maps), while the building at the second address (Google Maps, Bing Maps) still seems to be standing, apparently now housing a Salvation Army.

Finally, Ian Webb sent us some final photos of the AMC cars on his family’s property before they were all hauled off recently, and on the back of one of those cars – a Matador coupe – we spotted this faded dealership sticker from Haverstick AMC in Franklin, Indiana. Neither Havekost nor the 1983 list mention Haverstick.