Address2:

City

Seattle

State/Province:

WA

Zip/Postal Code:

Country:

USA

Updated:

2010-09-03

As a born-in-Seattle car nut - and a new member of the forum - I wanted to comment on the Seattle listings.  My '47 Custom Super had a data plate indicating a May '47 delivery by Packard Seattle.  I couldn't remember where they were located so I checked 1947 issues of the Seattle Times at the library; and by that time Packard Seattle had moved from Capitol Hill (1124 East Pike) to 5th and Wall in the Denny Regrade area.  Also, Seattle Automobile Company is indicated as a Packard dealer in Seattle.  By the end of WWII that firm was Chrysler-Plymouth and the neighborhood Packard dealer was Snyder, two blocks north.  That location is now University Mazda, where I bought a car in 6/84.

By the end of Packard's life, their main Seattle dealer was Metropolitan, downtown on sixth near Virginia.  The Tacoma dealer was Herb Satterlee.  And, lest we not forget, in Kent, WA there was Rasmussen Motors; who stuck with the marque to the bloody end.  I went through school with Jim Rasmussen's three kids. 

Just some updating of the Washington State dealer scene; or at least in the Seattle area.

Rasmussen's 109, 2nd. Ave. N from 1951, I have 2nd & Meeker 1940+45 and 301, W. Meeker 1947

Snyder Mot. Co @2521, NE Roosevelt wy., () 10th. Ave. N) 1947-1950

Should read 2521, 5th. Ave. NE, my mistake

The Packard Seatle Co. (also known as Van Pelt Packard, I believe) on Fifth Avenue across from the old Seattle Post-Intelligencer building later became headquarters for bus company Continental Trailways (it was a huge building) and then Totem Pontiac. Its last incarnation was as campaign headquarters for various politcal campaigns. The building was finally torn down in the '70s or '80s and is now one of the ubiquitous condominium monstrosities in Seattle's Denny Regrade district. My friend Craig bought a new Mazda in 2008 from University Mazda and always chats them up about the building's history. Craig, by the way, owns a 1953 Caribbean that he drove in my wedding in 2007 in the Queen Anne neighborhood. My dad owns a standard '53 convertible purchased new at Seattle's short-lived Metropolitan Motors. It still has the dealer medallion on the trunk lid. Thanks for sharing the memories.