Wendell Hawkins Motors At 3101 Kirby Dr.

[Highrise Tower]

wow!! I can't believe a car lot once occupied the infamous Upper Kirby area!

This is some cool history. Never would have thought!

Wendell Hawkins Motors, Inc.
3101 Kirby Drive & Alabama
LA 6-2966
Confidence Builds Out Business
* Imperial
* Chrysler
* Plymouth
* Valiant
Many Colors And Body Styles From Which To Choose

So this was where the present-day Grace's Restaurant is located?

Does anyone have memories about this place?

[Ross]

Kirby from 59 to Westheimer was full of car dealers when I moved to Houston in 1976. Here's the list of new car dealers from the 1959 directory

 

[brucesw]

3101 would have been right on the corner w/Alabama.  Grace is 3111 (may have been part of the plot).  

I don't remember this one but I never paid much attention to Chrysler products.  By the late 70s, in fact by 76 I think, that was a large import car dealership with several lines of upscale foreign cars as I remember.  Jag-you-are was among them.  An acquaintance was intown for a couple of days sometime in '76 and had to take his car in there before he could continue but I don't remember what he drove (other than it wasn't a Chrysler product).  MG?, Triumph?, 

[Dave W]

I remember driving by it. Like Bruce, I remember it as an import dealer, and that was by the early 1960s, b/c that dealership carried the Jaguar XK-E when it first came out in 1962.

By about 1970, River Oaks Chrysler-Plymouth had the dealership on Kirby, just south of the SW Freeway.

[brucesw]

Okay I cleared up some of my confusion.  I see the list posted by Ross was from '59, not '76.  I couldn't reconcile my memories of the (upscale) import dealership on that corner in the late 70s with Wendell Hawkins still on that list.  I think (not an expert) all those cars in the pic were late 50s Chrysler products.  That red (Imperial?) on the grass is a huge car.

Interesting to see 2 Olds dealers downtown, Sam White and Bill McDavid, plus Sam Montgomery on Kirby.  I don't remember the Sam Montgomery facility at all.

I do remember DeMontrond Buick on Kirby at Westheimer; later became Hub Buick and was there for a long time after I got to town.

[Dave W]

12 hours ago, brucesw said:

Okay I cleared up some of my confusion.  I see the list posted by Ross was from '59, not '76.  I couldn't reconcile my memories of the (upscale) import dealership on that corner in the late 70s with Wendell Hawkins still on that list.  I think (not an expert) all those cars in the pic were late 50s Chrysler products.  That red (Imperial?) on the grass is a huge car.

Interesting to see 2 Olds dealers downtown, Sam White and Bill McDavid, plus Sam Montgomery on Kirby.  I don't remember the Sam Montgomery facility at all.

I do remember DeMontrond Buick on Kirby at Westheimer; later became Hub Buick and was there for a long time after I got to town.

That appears to be a 1960 Chrysler in front of the showroom, and that's a Valiant (first model year was 1960) backing up to the Imperial.

I definitely remember Sam Montgomery Olds and his Sam the Rocket Man commercial jingle. Later moved to I-45 at Rankin Rd.

Another dealership in that general area was Jimmie Green Chevy at Shepherd & Westheimer. Tom Gray, the Nissan dealer, later bought it but kept the Jimmie Green name.

 

[JLWM8609]

On 7/8/2023 at 9:01 PM, brucesw said:

3101 would have been right on the corner w/Alabama.  Grace is 3111 (may have been part of the plot).  

I don't remember this one but I never paid much attention to Chrysler products.  By the late 70s, in fact by 76 I think, that was a large import car dealership with several lines of upscale foreign cars as I remember.  Jag-you-are was among them.  An acquaintance was intown for a couple of days sometime in '76 and had to take his car in there before he could continue but I don't remember what he drove (other than it wasn't a Chrysler product).  MG?, Triumph?, 

Was it Dominion Jaguar by '76?

[brucesw]

7 hours ago, JLWM8609 said:

Was it Dominion Jaguar by '76?

If this is the same company, not until much later.   May have been all British makes but I'm not sure.  Don't know when it closed either.  

[brucesw]

Auto Sports Ltd.  according to another HAIFer:  

Several follow-up posts in that thread identify some of the brands and that it moved out on the SW Fwy (between Chimney Rock & Fountainview - outbound).  I have been thinking about that second location but didn't remember it was the same name.  

[Dave W]

Could have been AutoSports, but I'm skeptical. They were originally on one of the east/west streets -- Westheimer or W. Alabama -- and were primarily a Volvo dealer. Maybe also MG. Later they moved to much larger quarters on the SW Freeway and had more lines.

The dealership on Kirby handled Jaguar, Rolls-Royce and Triumph, maybe others.

[brucesw]

Okay, Dave.  I've had some doubts myself since posting that.  I remember the name as being unusual in some way and the 'Ltd." fits the bill but I also remember the name connoting luxury and expense and 'AutoSports' doesn't do that. I was driving an Alfa Spyder in the early 70s from SW Motors on Chimney Rock.  I remember thinking 'Keep driving Bruce.  You can't afford any of those.'  I keep thinking there was an 'X' in the name in some way.   There are other posters who used to be very active in this forum who know a lot more about old car dealerships.  Hopefully one of them drops in.

I don't remember the Volvo dealership you mentioned.  The only one I knew was on Bellaire near Wesleyan in West U., later Nick's Place and then the original location of Union Kitchen, but I'm sure there were others.   I was driving a 67 Volvo 122S I had purchased in Austin before the Alfa; I did not want another Volvo.  I looked at a second hand BMW on a lot on San Felipe just inside the loop at some point - can't remember when.  I'm not even sure it was a BMW dealership.

I remember a European Auto Werks (?) and Bavarian Auto Haus (?) on W. Alabama around Timmons/Cummins lanes, I think, but no dealerships.

Here's an old link to AutoSports, Ltd, fwiw.  Note the same individual listed as contact for Dominion Jaguar later.

[Earlydays]

I also drove an Alfa 1750 Spyder in the early 70's that I bought at Joe Locario's SW Motors.

[mkultra25]

When did SW Motors change its name to SW Alfa? I'm guessing sometime in the 1980s?

Nice to see some old-school Alfisti here (I almost said "reformed Alfisti", but does one ever truly lose the passion for Alfas, no matter how long it's been since last owning one?). I had a GTV6 for several years in the late 80s/early 90s. Considering what they sell for now, I wish I hadn't ever sold it.  The new Alfas are nice enough, but I'm an old-car guy and as such the classic Alfas will always be more interesting to me. As I said to my wife the other day when she mentioned having seen several Minis all parked together, "Sir Alec Issigonis is probably spinning in his grave at the thought of Minis now being little more than badge-engineered German cars." 

[brucesw]

On 7/8/2023 at 8:12 PM, Ross said:

Kirby from 59 to Westheimer was full of car dealers when I moved to Houston in 1976. Here's the list of new car dealers from the 1959 directory

 

Okay, staring us in the face - check out the listings for Auto Imports and Auto Sports LTD in the list from 59 above -Auto Imports had a lot next door to Wendell Hawkins on Kirby and Auto Sports Ltd had one on Westheimer, a used car lot on Kirby, and another location in Pasadena.  The one on Westheimer I don't remember at all but is maybe the one Dave W is referencing?  

[brucesw]

3 hours ago, mkultra25 said:

When did SW Motors change its name to SW Alfa? I'm guessing sometime in the 1980s?

Nice to see some old-school Alfisti here (I almost said "reformed Alfisti", but does one ever truly lose the passion for Alfas, no matter how long it's been since last owning one?). I had a GTV6 for several years in the late 80s/early 90s. Considering what they sell for now, I wish I hadn't ever sold it.  The new Alfas are nice enough, but I'm an old-car guy and as such the classic Alfas will always be more interesting to me. As I said to my wife the other day when she mentioned having seen several Minis all parked together, "Sir Alec Issigonis is probably spinning in his grave at the thought of Minis now being little more than badge-engineered German cars." 

Helfman has an Alfa dealership wedged into a small plot along The Sterling McCall Interstate.  The cars look good streaming by on the frontage road or freeway but I haven't been in to look up close.  Actually probaby within the city limits of Stafford,  Meadows Place or Houston, not Sugar Land.

[Dave W]

31 minutes ago, brucesw said:

Okay, staring us in the face - check out the listings for Auto Imports and Auto Sports LTD in the list from 59 above -Auto Imports had a lot next door to Wendell Hawkins on Kirby and Auto Sports Ltd had one on Westheimer, a used car lot on Kirby, and another location in Pasadena.  The one on Westheimer I don't remember at all but is maybe the one Dave W is referencing?  

That's the one. The Westheimer location was the original. Our next door neighbors bought a new Volvo PV544 there in 1958. My dad later bought a new Volvo 122 there.

I have no idea why we didn't notice that in the listings.