Dunn Chevrolet - The Lost Dealership of Roanoke

When a new model came out, Chevrolet would send banners like these to its dealers for customers to see. This banner sings the virtues of the all new Chevelle and some of its features.

Here's another silk banner telling customers about the SS line and its many virtues, along with the Corvair Spyder and Corvette.

This neat page in another dealer's brochure shows how the lubrication system works on the old reliable 235 I-6 engine. Just spin the disc on the side to watch the paper crankshaft spin and the piston/rod to go up and down.

Who knows how many salesmen punched their time card at this clock before going out to sell anything from big block Chevelles to six cylinder Novas.

Here Keith Rowell, who bought the contents of the dealership in 2007 just after it closed, goes through a stack of dealer promotional banners. Over the years nothing was thrown away as the model years changed, so a library of original material exists today.

When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet Zippo lighter? Note the four digit phone number for the dealership and the Zippo guarantee insert. Other items lying around included matchbooks from hotels in Cuba where the salesmen took a special sales trip to in the 50s.

Filling the old wooden cabinets in the lobby are tons of NOS parts and dealer promotional items, including trim, radios, a brand new stop light viewer for a Tri-Five, an autotronic eye, and a NOS '57 Chevy clock.

Here's a bottle of promotional perfume from 1964. Still unopened, we wondered what the scent must've been like.

Around 1990 part of the dealership building in the back fell in, destroying some 40s and 50s model cars that the Dunn family owned. The old derelict in the foreground is a 30s Chevrolet pickup that was the delivery truck for the dealership, and delivered ice around town. Even though it's dented and got some rust holes, the steel body is mostly there and could be saved by a well motivated street rodder.