Neat Strat. I took a little tour of the street John to see if I could place the spot. No real luck finding any position where there was a surviving old style gas station structure on a corner.
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
If I had to guess, it would be near the corner of Commonwealth and Ruth/Park. My grandparents lived around there and had a drug store in that area. Ashford Sales on the NW corner is my uncle's place, which I think is on or near the site of the old house or drug store. I believe Park and Ruth weren't aligned originally. I'd guess that photo is taken facing SE. There is an Esso on that corner now, though I don't think there are any original buildings in the area.
-- Edited by jduffett on Sunday 3rd of April 2022 08:19:36 PM
By the way that Pontiac is an American Catalina, not a Canadian car. When American servicemen were stationed in St. John's and Argentia, quite a few US Pontiacs found their way to Newfoundland.
By the way that Pontiac is an American Catalina, not a Canadian car. When American servicemen were stationed in St. John's and Argentia, quite a few US Pontiacs found their way to Newfoundland.
Interesting! I'll have to ask about that. How can you tell? I'm seeing two words on the front fender which I thought was Strato Chief, but if US, then I guess it would be Star Chief?
What differentiates it as a USA Car? Strato on the right. I've noticed most CP's pictured on-line actually have the Pontiac Script on the hood, this one pictured doesn't for some reason.
What caught my attention were the crossover wipers, which in 1961 and up were used on US cars with 2 speed wipers while single speed US cars wiped to the same side, as did the Canadian Pontiacs (I have owned both US and Canadian cars from 62-64). That said the script does appear to be two words, i.e. "Strato Chief" , and from looking online it appears the Canadian cars in 1960 also had crossover wipers. So I think this car is a Canadian Strato Chief.
As to location, I think is is where JDuffett says it is, which is now a busy intersection at the junction of Commonwealth, Park and Ruth Avenues. The view linked below shows Ruth (Ashford Sales) from Commonwealth (Irving Location) in the photo taken in 2019.
- The first word in the script looks longer than "Star" and seems to have the second "t" in it.
- The front wheels look to be tucked further into the wheelwells, a symptom of the narrower track of the Chevy chassis. Remember American Pontiacs of the era were "wide tracks".
- The Star Chiefs I've seen all seem to have chrome door sashes, whereas this car has the painted ones that a Strato Chief would have.
I'm sure there are other details, but these ones jumped out to me.
As an aside, 1959/60 Chevys had crossover wipers, so Canadian Pontiacs would also have this characteristic, unlike the later cars that John mentioned.
Also the Canadian 1960's had a bumper bolt on the top of the bumper almost in front of the turn signal lenses. You can see that in the photo. Now as a disclaimer some very early build US cars had the same bumper bolt but it's pretty rare.
