Re: Dealer: Kansas City MO

Posted by Jeff On 2010/6/3 15:48:09

To answer the immediate question: Yes, the Zone Office was moved to the new location of Reid-Ward. It was in the "basement," that is, below the street level on half of the building. Bob Aller's office was located there while he served as Zone Service Manager out of KC.

To confirm the other question several posts above, the photo of the dealership shown is of the old Reid-Ward location, prior to their move in 1930. It is on McGee, and is now under the Crown Center complex. Interestingly, there was another Packard dealer very near by, a truck dealer in the '20s. It was at approx. 22nd & McGee. The newer Reid-Ward became Jack Beebe Packard in the '50s, at the same location. Mr. Beebe was a salesman (Sales Manager?) for R-W previously, and after both Reid and Ward were out of the picture, he purchased the business, running it until '56. We have members who still own the '53 Caribbean they purchased new at Beebe Packard!

Oddly, Hallmark basically destroyed both of the Reid-Ward sites. I doubt it was anything personal, but wouldn't it be interesting if someone on the Board of Hallmark were a big Cadillac stock-holder. Hmmmm.... nah. Couldn't be!

Sorry I am so late to the party here, but I have been researching various KC Packard locations for an upcoming feature in Mid-America Packards Data Plate. I have photos of several of these buildings, inside and out, and some other goodies to share. When I am ready to go, I will post those pics here to add to this very interesting section. Old dealerships are a disappearing treasure, and it is nice to document what we can!