Random Hudson Photos from Detroit Historical Society

Jon B · December 2018

I stumbled upon these tonight. Not sure whether any or all have already been published here, before. Many thanks to the Society (whose website can be found here: https://detroithistorical.org/)

First, some photos of the showroom Hudson built on its Jefferson Avenue property. From what I can ascertain, this was a free-standing building behind the administration building on Jefferson Ave., built in the 1920's, whose sole purpose was the display of the latest Hudsons. The photos are circa 1931.

(Another view of the factory showroom, taken by the father of Ed Mertz. Ed's photographic website is at edmertz.blogspot.com/ )

Now, a rather elaborate Hudson-Terraplane dealer's sign:

(By the way, here's a view of the front of that dealership, courtesy of Autolit.com:)

And, here is a display showing the new 1941 Hudson, probably either at a new-car show or a Hudson sales meeting. No, "Symphonic Styling" didn't mean that Arturo Toscanini designed the cars; it referred to the artful blending of the interior colors (upholstery, paint and plastic) with the exterior finish on each particular car, to create of symphony of visual harmony.

Here's a Hudson billboard at their Jefferson Avenue property, displaying the latest 1936 offerings:

Finally, something quirky: a metal display (for showrooms or parts departments?) showing the latest "automatic" cigar lighter, where the knob actually popped outward when the heating element was red-hot. The chromed knob and type font would seem to indicate this was devised in1939-40, yet pop-out lighters dated back to the mid-thirties, so were no longer so "gee-whiz!" that they would seem to deserve such a fancy interactive display.