Glens Falls in 1923 — Auto trading at the Armory

Miller Brothers garage had the first sale at the third annual Glens Falls Automobile Show that opened at noon March 8, 1923 at the Glens Falls Armory on Warren Street.

The Maple Street auto dealer sold a Buick runabout to W.M. Ronsette, president of the Hudson Tire and Rubber Co. of Yonkers.

Seventeen local automobile dealers exhibited at the seven-day show.

“With the entire ceiling of the drill shed draped with a yellow flimsy material, the sidewalks bedecked with green plants and knick-knacks, the lights shaded with designed yellow crepe and the floor space fairly covered with the latest makes and models of cars,” The Post-Star reported on March 9.

Admission was 35 cents — the equivalent of $5.81 in2022 dollars.

The Adirondack Male Chorus and Benton’s Orchestra performed in the drill shed on the opening night.

Hazelton’s Orchestra performed the third night.

There was a radio demonstration on the second floor.

The Glens Falls Automobile Club signed up more than 25 members on the opening day, toward a goal of 200 new members during the show.

S. J. Weatnerhy of Fort Edward won an electric toaster in the Call Hardware Co. contest.

The hardware dealer gave away a toaster, valued at $8.50, and 9:30 each evening of the show.

The Tire Shop of Glens Falls gave away a tire on the closing night to the person with the closest guess of the tire’s serial number.

The winner was Dr, Edwin Reese, president of the Glens Falls Automobile Club.

Guesses were accepted throughout the show.

The show continued from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day following.

Llewllyn-Smith Construction Co. was giving away six free building lots to customers that contracted for the company to construct a new home.

Construction could begin in April, before an expected increase in materials prices.

“This is a real opportunity to take advantage of present prices, before they advance, and to get a fine building lot,” the construction company advertised.

There was a good turn-out on Nov.10.

“Under its canopy of dull-shaded yellow, the armory drill shed, transformed into a veritable bower of beauty, with its fifty odd models and makes of automobiles, was the scene of great activity from morn to night Saturday with good-sized crowds of lovers of the ‘gasoline-driven buggy’ admiring and inspecting the main cars on display,” The Post-Star reported.

On March 12, the vehicles on display were swapped out for 56 closed-model sedans, to be exhibited for the rest of the show.

The Watson Stabilator demonstration was a big hit at the show.

Former Glens Falls residents Arthur West and Charles W. Sprague had recently returned to the city to establish a regional franchise for the device that cushioned the blow when a cart hits bumps in the road.

“It shows an actual car-spring suspended on one end. The spring is automatically compressed, showing the action that takes place when an auto hits a bump,” The Post-Star reported on March 13.

The process was then repeated with the Watson Stabilator attached to demonstrate how much more quickly the spring rebounds.

“Mr. Sprague says that it has been a revelation to those who saw the stabilator demonstration, when they realized just how they are bounced around by a car when the rebound is not controlled as by the Watson Stabilator.”

The Adirondack Male Chorus returned to entertain on the closing night, and “finished up strong … giving a series of selections from the drill shed floor, in the balcony, and in the basement,” The Post-Star reported on March 15.

Lambert’s Orchestra also performed.

“Weather conditions during the entire run of the exhibit were not all they might have been, yet, from a standpoint of the results obtained, the outcome was most gratifying.”

Sales were about 25 percent more than the previous year’s show.