Re: The 1951 Patrician of Jim L. in OR

Posted by Jim L. in OR On 2014/10/15 22:27:29

Continuing with the saga of "Indiana Jones and the Packard Patrician" I came across more artifacts today. One was a Registration Slip from Oregon DMV for the car covering the 1977 - 79 period. From that I now know the name of at least one prior owner and where he (and the Patrician) lived. I plugged the address into Google Earth and came up with a very nice house in a upper-middle class housing area with the houses being of the late '40s to mid 60s single floor vintage with large yards. I was also surprised to see in-ground swimming pools in the back yards of several of the houses including the address in question. For those not familiar with Oregon, the climate is such that in-ground pools are not that common even in up scale homes. Given the era the houses were built, there was a strong "keep up the the Jones'" ethic abroad at that time. I suspect that a sharp contractor made a deal to install one, which soon lead to him being quite busy building others for the neighbors.

With the amount of time that has passed I doubt if the people owning the Patrician are still living in the house, but there does seem to be a lingering appreciation for Collector Cars in residence. Parked in front was a very nice 1963 Chevrolet Impala Sport Coup.

The other was a tag for service at Deleigh Studebaker-Packard in Medford, OR for a Lube, Oil and Filter plus fluid level check. It's a little hard to make out the date, but it looks to be October of 1961. There seems to be another one under that I will have to get at a little later.