Jennings Ford Automobile Dealership, Springfield, Illinois

            The Jennings Ford Automobile Dealership is a historic automobile dealership located on the northwest corner of South Fourth and Jackson streets in Springfield. Ford dealer Frank Jennings built the dealership in 1919. The three-story, factory-style building was designed by prominent Springfield architect Harry Reiger. The building integrated every major function of an auto dealership at the time; it included a sales floor, a service center, a car wash, a storage garage, and a repainting facility. 

At the time Jennings built his dealership on Fourth Street, its location was one of the most desirable commercial areas of the city, adjacent to what was once Springfield's most fashionable neighborhood, Aristocracy Hill, centered around the Illinois Governor's Mansion which was catty-corner from the new building.

The automobile became widespread in Springfield in the 1910s; and Jennings Ford was one of several dealerships to open on South 4th Street, which was then the city's automobile row. By 1915 six automobile dealers were located on South Fourth Street with three of them in the 400 block. They offered a dazzling array of automobile brands from which to choose - Briscoe, Cadillac, Chalmers, Dodge, Essex, Maxwell, Lincoln, Packard, Paige, Stearns-Knight, Studebaker, Overland and others. 

In these early years there was confusion as to the direction of the auto industry and it was not yet clear that a few companies in Detroit would come to dominate the market. Similarly, many dealers stocked only a few automobiles each with most customers placing special orders. The few cars on hand could be accommodated in typical commercial buildings with only minor modifications.

While the Jennings Ford building remained an automobile dealership for years, the Jennings Ford business did not last as long. Sometime between 1927 and 1933, the building was home to a new dealership. City directories list the Glisson Motor Company at the Jennings address in 1933. Between 1940 and 1950 the building was occupied by Capitol City Motors, and in 1955 was listed as the R.E. Bros dealership. In 1960, the building was the garage for Illinois Bell Telephone Company. Before the property sold to Illinois National Bank for its operations center, it served as the Illinois State Library Literacy Office.

The Jennings Ford Automobile Dealership building is one of the few remaining dealership buildings in downtown Springfield, and is the best-preserved of the survivors. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Sources: (1) National Register of Historic Places Registration Form - Jennings Ford Automobile Dealership and (2) Jennings Ford Automobile Dealership on Wikipedia (retrieved April 4, 2022)

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Taken on: May 22, 2020

Tags:

Springfield

Sangamon County

Illinois

Historic

Automobile

Ford Motor Company

Dealership

Jennings Ford Automobile Dealership

431 S. Fourth St.

Neighborhood

Aristocracy Hill

Architecture

Architect

Harry Reiger

Architectural Style

Early

20th Century

Industrial

Factory

“National

Places”

NRHP

“Reference”

06000450

Canon

EOS

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Sets appears in: • Springfield, Illinois

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