Winston-Salem’s first car show took place on this day in 1920 at Pepper’s Warehouse, located at Liberty and Eighth Streets. (Photo above at left, showing a side entrance to the warehouse, at a later date.)
The show ran from the 5th to the 9th, and the newspapers on those days were filled with automobile advertisements, including photographs or drawings of the cars that could be seen at the show. (Drawing above, at right.)
On April 5th, the Winston-Salem Journal published a special car show issue that included articles related to cars. Most of the articles were written by people in the automotive business on a national basis. One article was “Does each family need a motor car?” One of the considerations for owning a car was parking. The writer stated that in a largely populated area, the building of parking garages has not kept pace with building residences. And, in some neighborhoods in New York, car owners have to pay $50.00 a month to park their cars. Of course, the cost is less in smaller towns with wide spaces between residences.
Parking, car parts and service, better roads, and driving laws were just a few of the issues that accompanied the automobile phenomenon hitting our country in the 1920s.
Photos courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
