Remodeling reveals old Newark car dealer sign in cement – The Times of Wayne County

Recently, young Newark entrepreneur Travis Wohlrab, having purchased the Northside Laundry building at 419 North Main Street in Newark, decided to remove the old wooden sign on the front of the building. As he took down portions of the sign, concrete lettering began to appear.  

First there was an emblem featuring Chief Pontiac, a native American and then the words McMann Pontiac Sales Company. He soon found out that McMann referred to Christie McMann who sold Pontiac automobiles there from about 1946 to 1954. Wohlrab plans to leave the sign visible as a retro effect, with signs of the individual businesses located below.     

Christie McMann, who had started out working as a barber, had established McMann Pontiac Sales Company in a former blacksmith shop at 125 North Main Street, had his eye on a property at 419 North Main Street and decided to move his Pontiac franchise into a new building. The history of the Pontiac automobile is well documented. The Pontiac brand was named after an Odawa (Ottawa) war chief who led Native Americans in a conflict against the British in the Great Lakes region from 1763 to 1766.  Pontiac automobiles were introduced by General Motors in 1926, initially as a companion brand to GM’s Oakland. However, it soon overtook Oakland in popularity and completely replaced it by 1933. In the 1940s and 1950s GM’s President Alfred Sloan pioneered the GM Ladder of Success. Traditionally, GM’s car sales ladder has been to start with Chevy, upgrade to Pontiac (sporty) then to Oldsmobile (performance) or Buick (luxury) and then eventually end up at Cadillac, “Standard of the World”. 

(If you don’t think that this thinking existed look at a photo of the parking lot of Newark’s Commercial Building in the 1950s.)

Christie McMann sold only Pontiacs and did well, along with other small dealers in Newark. After retiring from leaving the car business, he established a mobile home sales on Rt. 31 near Palmyra. His Pontiac franchise was eventually sold to Cadillac dealer Leo Whelan.