My mom grew up in Danville. Therefore, a lot of my knowledge of buildings and locations come from what she remembers, as well as other older Danvillians I knew growing up. Admittedly, I was cursed with the title of "you're Joe Taylor's grandson," "you're Louise Taylor's grandson," "oh, I went to school with your mom," or just as frequently (and often in conjunction with one of the above) "Oh, you're Allan's son. I know your dad."
Throughout the past century, Danville has been a host to many businesses that are oft overlooked. For the purposes of this blog, we'll focus on Car Dealers. Long before the days of "Robert said sell 'em" and VIR, the automotive scene in Danville was nothing like it is today. Where most people travel to Greensboro, Roanoke, or Lynchburg to buy fancier cars or foreign cars that just aren't sold in Danville, in the 1950s and 1960s most everything you could imagine was available in Danville...most of which in downtown, believe it or not. Renault, Peugeot, Fiat, Volkswagen, and Mercedes (just to name a few) were all sold in Danville at one time.
What sparked this entry, however, is a very certain automotive manufacturer that isn't even available in the United States anymore: Renault (pronounced Reh-noh for those aren't familiar). My grandmother had two Renaults which she loved dearly. For those of you who knew me in high school, her Renaults were to her what my Accord was to me. She would talk about those cars until shortly before her death. And I don't mean the crappy ones imported by AMC in the 1980s. Oh no, I mean the crappy ones (sorry, Grandma) that were available in the United States in the 1950s-1970s.
My mom once or twice spoke of the Renault dealership being located downtown, where the bus depot is today. I decided to do a little research through the Register and Bee archives, but found nothing alluding to this. I did, however, learn something very intriguing about the Renault dealership. It seems that it was actually, at least in the early 1960s, located not in downtown, but on West Main Street.
Next time you're on West Main Street, at the intersection with Howeland Circle, look at the brick building next to Swicegood Funeral Home. Perhaps you may have noticed at some point in your life, there is a little driveway going below the building. That little driveway has intrigued me for as long as I can remember. I even once had a dream where I went down there -- don't ask why I remember that dream, it's a long story. Well, the reason that driveway is there is because that building used to be a car dealership. Older Danvillians know this building for the Soda Shop and later a florist that occupied this building. I think it's dentist offices now.
Next door, on the tract of land that Huffman's Car Wash now occupies rested a group of buildings. One of those buildings was the Coca Cola bottling company, at least in the 1920s. In the 1960s and 1970s, the soda shop occupied one of those buildings. Another one was occupied in the early 1960s by the Renault and Peugeot dealership. I believe, though I'm not 100% certain, that based on my the Sanborn Maps the buildings that Huffman's Car Wash occupy now are the storage buildings once occupied by the Coca Bottling Company. The car wash holds the same shape as the storage buildings did in the old maps.
I must admit, it's the frailty of the human memory that sparked this entry. You see, I vaguely recalled some connection between the First Citizens Bank Building downtown, the bus depot, and the Renault dealership. Following a phone call with my mother today, I realized it was my own fault that I misremembered. I, for some reason, though the Renault dealership was where the Bus Depot is now. I was wrong. What my mother had told me was that the First Citizens building was the old Greyhound or Trailways Bus Depot. We must have been talking about the Renaults at the time or something, I don't know. But it makes sense that the parking spaces in that lot could have easily been for busses prior to the little cement barriers that now separate the spaces.
Anyway, that's my soapbox about old buildings and car dealerships.
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