The Historic Car Club of Pennsylvania Celebrating Automotive History since 1949

 I am looking for items from 1964 for Steever-Wolford Ford. They were in Upper Darby, closing around 1965 or so.Towards the end of their run, the "Steever" portion of the name was dropped and the dealership became Wolford Ford. I am looking for paperwork, advertisements, trunk emblems, photos, etc from 1964. My 1964 Fairlane originally came from Wolford and my father bought a 64' Fairlane from them when I was 6 years old.

Lou Cortese

610 459 8063

wingsnwheels58@hotmail.com  

Lou,

My name is Kimberly Wolford, my great grandfather was William A. Wolford and was partners with Mr. Stever.  I have some slides of my great grandfather and Mr. Stever outside the dealership.  I also have pictures of my grandfather who worked there outside the dealership.  I can check some of the other items that I may have that may be of interest to you.  I remember before my grandmother moved from the area to NJ that she still had the service board with the prices at the time, unfortunately she saw no value in it and disposed of it, what a shame.

 I would be interested in trading or anything you have as well since it is part of my family and through generations and estates they have been lost.  I hope we can make a trade and would love if you shared anything you may know with me.

 Thank you,

 Kim

Hi, Kimberly,

 Wow!!! Such an interesting family history! However, the only item I have is a metal  "Steever Wolford Upper Darby,PA" license plate frame on my Fairlane tag.

 I don't have anything else from the dealership, just the car and my 1964 Ford literature and memorabelia collection that I would be happy to share with you.

Thank you so much for your response.

Lou

wingsnwheels58@hotmail.com

Lou,

I received both your emails and will keep them obviously, I would even love to have a picture of your license plate frame, my grandmother's old car had a Wolford Ford emblem on the back of, she didn't keep it to the best of my knowledge.  I am very exicted to hear about those times and would love to see your car, I  don't know if you go to any of the shows, but would love to see it.

I am currently starting my own accounting practice and my life is a little in chaos right now, however I was very close to my grandfather and will keep this as a priority once I get things settled and will go through the old things I have, I hope something will be of value to you and will at least send you copies of the pictures from the dealership, maybe your car will be on the lot!

My grandparents interestingly enough were very close to Rudy Valentino and continued to be friends for most of their lives.  I know little about him exept that my grandparents went out with them often.

 When my parents starting dating and got married the dealership was still around, I will also ask my mom what she remembers.  I did hear about one time when my mother had a thunderbird off the floor and was caught by my father racing, I failed to mention she was pregnant with me at the time, needless to say my mom got more sensible cars from the floor from that point on.  I know that my family had the priveldge of taking cars from the floor to use regularly, I'm sure they got their hands on that Mustang and it is a shame that your dad didn't get to take it for a drive.

I will keep up in the future, I did check the site regularly after I initially posted my response, and while it may be a little quiet in the next couple months, I will definately take advantage of sharing what I have and learn.

 Have a great day and look forward to hearing from you in the future,

 Kim

This posting triggered a lot of memories.  I bought my first car from Stever-Wolford Ford -- it was a 1957 Custom 300 V-8 2-door sedan that I bought for $550 in 1963.  My mother bought two new cars from Stever-Wolford -- a 1957 Fairlane Club Victoria and a 1960 Galaxie Club Sedan. 

We dealt with Bill Brazier for sales, and whenever body or paint work was needed, we went to Ben Natale in the body shop.

When the '58 cars were introduced, Mr. Wolford was offering for sale his demonstrator -- a 1957 Lincoln Premiere 2-door hardtop.  As I recall, this car was a pale flamingo pink with a white roof.  I thought it was beautiful, and encouraged my grandfather to go take a look at it.  He really liked it, and was ready to buy it to replace his '55 Buick sedan.  But my grandmother vetoed the purchase because she said it would be too difficult for their friends to get in and out of the back seat of a two-door car. 

Stever-Wolford Ford was a fine dealership, with a great tradition of customer service that encouraged repeat business.  It was part of a complete "automobile row" on Garrett Road.  The dealerships on either side were Powell-Gardner Buick (later Gardner Buick) and Bertolett Packard (later Bertolett Dodge).  In the next couple of blocks, there were Speck Cadillac-Oldsmobile and Burdumy Lincoln-Mercury.  And, closer to the 69th Street area, I remember Terminal Chevrolet (later Ferraro Cadillac-Oldsmobile) and Harold B. Robinson Chrysler-Plymouth (later Sunny Stein Chevrolet). 

We "car guys" spent many summer evenings meeting with friends at the Hot Shoppes and then driving around to see what these dealerships had on their used car lots.  

I realize these reminiscences don't help with Lou's search for memorabilia, but I wanted to share them in case they trigger some other good memories of Upper Darby as it was in the 50s and 60s.

Richard Sills     

 Richard, I love those stories and a million thanks for taking the time to share them with me. I also remember dealer's names and advertisements, like Sunny Stein. He had to have a hole in his head to make such great deals on Chevies.  There used to be an awful lot of Chevies with "Sunny Stein" on the deck lid.

 I believe Blenheim Mercedes Benz occupied the old Wolford Ford dealership after they closed. Somewhere, friends and I compiled a list of old auto dealers in the area. To cool...

Thanks again, Richard.

Richard and Lou,

 Thank you both for your stories, when I was young I didn't want to hear those stories now I will save these emails as  a part of my family's history.  I miss my grandfather, and somehow this makes me feel closer to him. 

 I have not forgotten about the pictures I owe you, I have moved on from my old firm and am starting my own practice however that still remains on my list and one I will not forget about.  Hope to get to it soon.

 I have no idea where the dealership was except 69th street, do either of you know exactly where?

Happy New Year,

Kim

Lou,

I am going through the old stuff now and will post as a find things, I have someone working for me now who has the job of scanning the old pictures, I hope to have them to you soon.

I just found a script in my grandfather's journal...Wolford Ford closed it's doors on Monday  March 15, 1965.

I hope this finds you well and will continue this process and share what I find as it comes to my attention.

 Have a great day,

Kim