Pre War Fords at Barrett Jackson West Palm Beach 2011

A break from the norm(whatever that is!) this is a look at the Pre-War Ford products at the Barrett-Jackson sale in Palm Beach. I spent some time looking over the Ford Motor Company new car exhibit and found the staff there very helpful & friendly.  For someone who hasn't been to a Barrett-Jackson Auction, they are well worth going to! Ticket & Merch prices are reasonable (I've paid more for a T-shirt at a concert than I have at Barrett-Jackson), and you will certainly get your money's worth- or if you want to look at it from a ROI standpoint, you'll be ahead of the game by the time you get all the free T-shirts, stickers, posters, etc.  Enough of that! Let's take a look at the cars............

Model T Speedster

TT Truck

1930 Model A Ford Standard Roadster

My personal favorite- 1935 Ford Phaeton

Dash of 1935 Phaeton

Rare Accessory Radio in 1935 Ford

Speaker Grill of the radio. Never go wrong with the Ford script!

Seldom seen 1942 Lincoln Continental

Passenger area of Continental

Ford Display Area

Like to have this for my garage!

Sure it's past 1940, but who doesn't like Andy Griffith?

1948 Lincoln Continental on the block. Taken from the cheap seats- spectator area.

Portion of the crowd.

Yes it's new! Part of the Ford exhibit.

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What you don't see on Television- an empty auction block.

Homes of Ford Executives- Peter "Ed" Martin

Ed Martin left, with Henry Ford in late 1931. Note the 1932 Ford Chassis in the background.

Peter "Ed" Martin had the distinction of being the the 5th employee hired by Ford Motor Company in 1903. As he rose from the ranks of machine design & engineering, he became the head of manufacturing working closely with Charles Sorensen and Henry Ford on a daily basis. We will do a more in depth post on Ed Martin in a future post.

Ed Martin had several homes through out the years, but the 2 pictured below are the ones he lived in during his peak at Ford Motor. The first home was located at 1486 Chicago Blvd. in the Boston Edison District of Detroit. Among other notable people living in this neighborhood were James Couzens, Horace & John Dodge, and others. Henry Ford lived in this neighborhood at 140 Edison from 1906-1915 after which he moved to Dearborn. This is 1486 Chicago as it looks today-

As success & fortune followed him at the time he was appointed a Vice President of Ford Motor, Martin bought a stately home in the Palmer Woods district of Michigan i the 1920s. This home still stands today at 1411 Wellesley. Here's a current photo.

The New 1936 Ford.

Here is a selection of new 1936 Fords. These cars were designed under the tutelage of E.T. Gregorie, Ford Motor Company's brilliant styling man. We will cover him in a future post.

With One Foot in Agriculture And The Other In Industry- America is safe.

That was Henry Ford's credo and he did indeed practice what he preached. Clara Ford even got into the spirit by designing small roadside markets that a farmer could quickly & easily build at minimal cost to sell his crops.

Here's a rare photo of Henry Ford checking out one of these Roadside Markets. I'm willing to bet this was a stand he owned and all the produce is from his own Ford Farms.