In 1916, if you wanted to buy a Ford in Dallas, the procedure was a bit different than it is today. Seven years before, in 1909, the Ford Motor Company opened a two-man service center in Dallas to repair and service its new Model T cars. Within five years, demand for Model T's was so great that Ford opened an assembly line in the 1900 block of Main at Commerce street. It could produce 150 cars per day. Here's one young man's buying experience:
"Other automobile companies had showrooms in the business area but if you wanted to buy a Ford you had to go to the factory. I was a student at Southern Methodist University in 1916, and my father sent me down to buy a car. I had a check for the full price, $424.10, as the only way you could buy a car was for cash. We lived at 3515 Crescent, so I had to walk to Knox Street and get a streetcar to the plant.
When the car came off the assembly line they asked me if I could drive and I said, yes, and asked was it ready to go? They said, yes, it was ready; it had oil but it needed some gasoline. I asked if they would furnish enough gasoline for me to get home as I only lived three or four miles away. They said, no, so I said, "Give me my check back and I will go buy an Overland."
They gave me my check back and I went home on the streetcar, but before I got there they had called my father and told them 'send that boy back,' they would give him some gasoline. I went back and got the car, with gasoline, and drove it all my school years."
----- Dale S. Campbell, as quoted in A.C. Greene's "Sketches from the Five States of Texas." Here's a photo of a 1916 Ford, though not Dale Campbell's Ford.
