Art Detail
- Title: Cars of the Century
- Artist: The Artists of Sheri Law Art Glass, Ltd.
- Location: Van Buren Ave. between Main St. and Washington St.
- Medium: Mosaic
- Installation Date: 2001
- Description: Stained glass panels depicting four cars and local dealerships from the 20th century.
- Plaque Text: Despite its caption, this colorful stained glass window is a tribute not to the automobile, but to the variety of auto dealerships that sold and serviced cars locally throughout the last century. In most American towns and villages, car dealerships were located in the downtown area until the mid sixties. Naperville was no exception. No less than seven auto dealers were located within three blocks of here, as shown on the adjoining map. Generally, they were family businesses such as: A. The Clyde Netzley family operated the Chrysler Plymouth franchise for over fifty years. B. The Huffstettler family originally ran the Huff Chevrolet business until purchased by Angelo Egizio. In 1965, the dealership moved to Odgen Avenue at Naperville Wheaton Road. C. Catty corner from Netzley's Garage, Charley Burgess had a Kaiser-Fraser dealership after World War II. D. The Cromer family ran the Ford dealership. Cromer Ford was the original Ford distributorship in northeastern Illinois. E. Directly across the street from Cromer's Ford, the Brummel family operated the Brummel Motor Company selling and servicing Buicks until 1961 when it became Colonial Motor Sales, Inc. F. Colonial Motor Sales, Inc. relocated in 1966 to a new facility and in 1978, Village Pontiac, Inc., successor to Colonial, became the first dealership to relocate to the West Odgen Avenue area known as Automobile Row. G. The Oldest established automobile business in Naperville is Koller Dodge. Robert Koller, Sr. purchased the Dodge franchise in 1964. It is now part of Automobile Row.
- Plaque Courtesy Of: We are grateful to Neil Gerald of Gerald Nissan, Robert Van Iten of Village Pontiac-GMC Trauck, Norm and Mark Zienty of Fair Oaks Ford and Ed Hoy's International, for helping make this work of art possible.
Audio Tour
- Cars of the Century
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