MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
 
JUMP TO PAGE   100  >  200  >  300  >  400  >  500  >  600
VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

Fenders Fixed: 1920

San Francisco circa 1920. "Day-Elder truck." Latest entry on the Shorpy List of Lapsed Lorries. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.

San Francisco circa 1920. "Day-Elder truck." Latest entry on the Shorpy List of Lapsed Lorries. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

Chester N. Weaver Company

The name of the dealer that sold the truck is on the side of the hood. This was the Chester N. Weaver Company of 1560 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. Weaver is the man standing to the right in the photo. The photo seems to have been taken in the same block as the dealership.

Weaver sold Studebaker cars, in addition to the Day-Elder trucks, and he had California Automobile Dealer license plate #1. The Studebaker dealership was the first automobile dealership in the city. Day-Elder trucks are interesting because they used worm drive instead of shaft or chain drive.

Weaver personally knew John M. (J.M.) Studebaker, the last surviving of the original five Studebaker brothers, in fact hosting Studebaker in San Francisco for two weeks in 1912. Weaver was the head of the Studebaker Corporation of America, San Francisco Branch. Studebaker went to bat for Weaver when Weaver started selling automobiles on an installment contract basis in 1909. The company wasn't happy with the contracts, but Studebaker said it was okay, and the firm authorized Weaver $100,000 to continue to operate this way. Weaver was told that if this system of selling did not work out the company would not assure his continued employment.

In 1913 Weaver was the first person to drive a car to the top of Lone Mountain. At the time Lone Mountain was in the Laurel Hill Cemetery, but the area was cleared of all burials in the 1930s and 1940s. The location is now the University of San Francisco. The photo below is from page 5 of The San Francisco Call and Post, December 20, 1913.

Chester Neal Weaver, was born on May 5, 1868 in LaPorte, Indiana, married Elsie Standring in 1890 in the Chicago area, and came west in 1898 to visit his brother who was a manager at a Studebaker branch. On this visit he met J.M. Studebaker who discovered that Chester was an accountant. Studebaker offered him a job which Weaver accepted. By 1905 he was the Branch Manager of the Studebaker Wagon Manufacturing Company in San Francisco. In 1914 Weaver took over the Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose Studebaker franchises, and in 1918 he became the Northern California Distributor for the company.

Weaver was appointed the head of the California State Advisory Commission on Motor Legislation, and he helped to draft the California Motor Vehicle Code. He also served as the Director of the Northern California Automobile Dealers' Association.

Some newspaper accounts state he retired in 1931, but it appears that he never sold his interests in his dealerships. In 1933 Weaver gave up control of the San Francisco branch but retained control of the Oakland branch. In February, 1935 he purchased the Don Neher Ford and Lincoln agency in Oakland, and Weaver converted his 29th and Broadway Studebaker showroom into a Ford dealership. The transition was not too difficult since Neher's building was next to Weaver's facility. A year later he was the largest Ford dealer in California. Also in 1936 he started to sell the full line of General Electric home appliances.

By December 1940 he was selling Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln-Zephyr as well as Ford trucks. The Mercury and Lincoln-Zephyr showroom moved into a new building at 30th and Broadway the same month. Weaver continued to manage his firm through WWII, but he sold his interest to his long-time partner in June 1946 for a reported $290,000. Weaver died on Christmas Eve the same year, aged 78.

Is that a pistol in your pocket?

No really. Is that a pistol?

Good catch on the location tterrace.

The guy in the bowler

is packing a .32 .

San Francisco Sidewall Again

On the right front, from being jammed against the curb when parked on SF's hills.

Brompton Apartments

Visible in the background above the radiator, one block east of Van Ness at 1424 Polk St., the 1908 building remains, superficially altered a bit.

Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.