No great surprise if you follow the car business, in fact it's pretty amazing they held on so long...
Downtown has lost its last car dealership.
An official at Gate City Lincoln Mercury said today that the company has been sold to Green Ford and has moved to vacant property on Wendover Avenue.
My grandfather used to buy his Chryslers there, my dad worked there during summers, and I made more than one visit to the body shop in high school.
I could still sing you the jingle from their old teevee add if you asked nicely.
Sad indeed, can't make a living selling only Lincolns from a single lot.
Posted by: Kim | May 02, 2011 at 02:47 PM
What's really sad is that it will probably get replaced by a bar/restaurant/club that changes owners 5 times in 5 years before going belly up.
Posted by: Billy Jones | May 02, 2011 at 03:30 PM
Let me go ahead and get this out of the way...sure would be a great spot for a Trader Joe's:>
Posted by: glenwoodobserver | May 02, 2011 at 03:33 PM
I'm not sure if the guy quoted in the article is the guy I knew or his son, but the David Brown who owned Gate City 20 years ago also served with competence and dignity on the City Council around that time.
Posted by: Lex | May 02, 2011 at 03:44 PM
What would John Updike say?
Posted by: Grant | May 02, 2011 at 03:51 PM
Same Lex, he also ran for mayor. He still goes in to work everyday, well into his seventies.
Posted by: Kim | May 02, 2011 at 04:07 PM
Sic transit gloria auto mundi.
Posted by: bubba | May 02, 2011 at 04:19 PM
"Let me go ahead and get this out of the way...sure would be a great spot for a Trader Joe's:>"
But the Galloway Buick lot next door would be even better as it has adequate parking that the Gate City site does not have.
Posted by: Billy Jones | May 02, 2011 at 06:31 PM
I live nearby, and I'm sad to see them go. They were good neighbors, and now one more building on Summit will be empty, one more parking lot will start sprouting weeds.
Posted by: David Wharton | May 02, 2011 at 06:45 PM
Professor Wharton,
I feel your pain living in a neighborhood where 1-2 out of every 5 houses has been empty for years and years but that is the way the development crowd gets a foothold and is the business model they prefer.
Posted by: Billy Jones | May 02, 2011 at 11:22 PM
I think the area is perfect for a museum district, not quite like the Smithsonian complex, but more like the one on Long Island. We've already got the Children's Museum, the Greensboro Historical Museum, the Cultural Arts Center and the library, use that spot and the YWCA site to flesh it out into natural history, air & space, technology... whatever. Just don't mess with the Flatiron.
Posted by: Brian Clarey | May 03, 2011 at 08:47 AM
A motorcycle museum would be a big attraction. Both Galloway and Gate City could be incorporated.
Posted by: Billy Jones | May 03, 2011 at 09:09 AM
Brian -- good thought. I think Action Greensboro's old plan for downtown actually calls it that. And Billy -- good idea! But who should we invite for the Grand Opening, Paul Sr. or Paul Jr.?
Posted by: David Wharton | May 03, 2011 at 10:21 AM
Really big ice rink next winter.....
Posted by: Axelskater | May 03, 2011 at 10:52 PM