Regarding my vintage clothing business, Vintage-Haberdashers, one of the most common questions I get, right after, “how did you get into all this?”, is “where do you find all your stuff?”. It’s one of those questions that can be hard to answer. “Oh, you know, here and there” usually suffices and avoids the long story.  But the truth is, I drive a lot.

This weekend was a casual overnight excursion to Billings, Montana. For those of you not familiar with the area, the drive from Bozeman to Billings is just under 150 miles, and usually I make it as a day trip. So that’s a 300 mile round trip, hours on the road and a tank of gas, for the hope that maybe, just maybe, there will be some old ties or a couple of vintage hats waiting to be found. There are no guarantees in this business.

But I’ve had good luck in Billings in the past. There are a number of antique shops, thrift stores, secondhand stores and the like, and I usually get lucky at at least one or two.  This past weekend, one of the larger antique malls was having an outdoor antique fair, with its craigslist ad touting 70 vendors.  It was enough to hopefully tip the odds in my favor.

My girlfriend, Alex, and I drove out Friday night so that we could get an early start so we could be back in Bozeman before the sun started to set. We stayed at a charming 1950s motor court, the Dude Rancher Lodge. Neon, knotty pine and exposed beam ceilings combined with recent western themed carpets and brand wall hangings courtesy an appearance on “Hotel Impossible” several years ago, made for a charming place to stay. Full of character, it was way more fun than a chain motel, and just the right kind of place for vintage people like us.

We made it to the fair a little later than we had hoped, it turned out that in Billings on a Saturday morning, everyone goes out for breakfast, and lined stretched out the door of everyplace good or interesting. I went against every fiber of my being and went to the practically deserted Denny’s for a generic breakfast. I think that might have cancelled out the “shop local” cred the Dude Rancher got me. Oh well.  There was a lot of re-purposed, re-painted, hand-made, shabby chic type of antiques at the fair, but also a few gems to be had. Afterward, we hit up the aforementioned antique shops in downtown Billings and a few of the thrifts. Here are a few of the neat things I spotted, but didn’t buy.  It seemed like I was tripping over vintage hats and vintage neckties at every step, but I have to be selective.  The market is really down on the more mundane patterns of 1940s ties, so even at the reasonable $6 a piece that one vendor was asking, there’s no way for me to make any money from that, so I let probably 30-some of them sit. Same with hats- below a certain size or a certain brim length, there’s such limited demand.

Things survive in Billings. It’s a good town for lovers of vintage. Neon signs, ghost signs, architecture.

After a long day of hunting, I managed to find a good sized cache of vintage hats, most of which were originally sold within a few miles of where I found them. But for me, the real treat was that leather jacket.  They’re all over the internet, but it’s getting harder and harder to find “out in the wild”. And this one’s a real beauty. Great patina and a rare model.  I’d love to know who wore it some 60 odd years ago, but I can say that it’s pretty likely they rode a Harley in Billings.

Here’s the full haul all cleaned up and photographed. For those of you who are interested, you can check out the whole batch HERE

This shot has a stamped caption on the back, a different style than the previous Roy Bruce shots, so although it came from the same source, I think it may be earlier. No information other than that it was located somewhere in Cortland, Ohio

More photos from my collection, taken 1952 by Roy W. Bruce
Caption reads, “Northern Ohio Traction and Light Company, 1500 series car used as home, Independence Ohio – Good looking chick lived here ‘stacked’ ”

While it was a home when Mr. Bruce photographed it in 1952, it still bears the signage on the side from having been converted at some earlier point to a diner, as well as the neon clock in the front window. It definitely had seen better days at the point the photos were taken.

Photos from my collection taken in 1952 by Roy W. Bruce. Caption reads, “Ex Northern Ohio Traction and Light Co used as coal office, Cleveland, Ohio” “Note: Markers on car has Bedford Ohio Signs”

Period directories give the address of Rose Robbins and Company Coal and Coke as 2471 W. 41st Street, Cleveland, Ohio. While it is still an industrial area, the bridges are all newer and there is no longer anything recognizable from the photos.

It looks like there may be another converted trolley or rail car to the left of the pillar underneath the bridge in both of the angles of this conversion. From its location under the tracks, normally I would say it was a parked or passing train, but it appears that the windows have been boarded up. Possibly used as storage?

“#1501 Used as Coal office W. 41st Street, Cleveland, Ohio”

Another angle on the coal office hanging out over the bridge.

Here’s a vintage photo from my collection. The licence plate on the truck is from the 1920s, but I can’t tell if the last digit is a 5, 6, or 8.

As an update to this earlier post,https://dinerhunter.com/2015/07/06/the-college-park-little-tavern/, the College Park Little Tavern will likely be demolished within a week or so. Efforts to salvage the panels and to at least preserve part of the building have been complicated by the university, who have cited water damage to panel fasteners in the wall cavity (likely a result of them removing the roof caps earlier in the year), and the discovery of lead paint in an unrelated part of the building. It will be replaced by a food truck parking space, though I suspect there will be further redevelopment of the block in the future, if the rest of Rt. 1 in that stretch is anything to go by.

Washington no. 26, located at 2716 Good Hope Road S.E., Washington, D.C. and last operating as New York Fried Chicken was slated to be demolished last year, though I haven’t been able to find if the job has been completed. I will update you when I know.

The former Little Tavern, Washington Shop no.24, located at 2537 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. and built c.1948, has been demolished. It last operated as a construction office.

http://dc.curbed.com/archives/2015/07/chuck-brown-mural-dc-petworth.php

Little Tavern no. 2, which opened in February of 1929, will be demolished soon to make way for a 21 unit apartment building.  The building has been remodeled and partially encased in add ons over the years, and its heritage as a former Little Tavern has been all but forgotten. As one of the earliest, it was built before the introduction of the tudor cottage style which would come to define the chain. It shows the clear influence of White Castle’s early designs, which were widely imitated (White Tower springs to mind). It is one of three of these castle style LTs still standing, though one of the other two was subsequently remodeled in tudor style, and the other was only in the chain from 1928 to 1935. There has been outcry over the demolition owing to the recently painted Chuck Brown mural on the former front of the building.

It is located at 3701 New Hampshire Ave. NW Washington DC.

Image courtesy Charlene Clark

The LT was expanded out to the right at some point and the door filled in. But the wall to the left is still recognizable, and the window in Chuck Brown’s chin is the original front window.