McKinley’s Service Station on 1927 Broadway.

A century ago, the many “auto parks” - the dealerships along the roads beyond of the city of Newburgh - were farms. The motorized vehicles that traveled out Route 17K were most often trucks. Like the wagons that used the wide Western Road in the 19th century, early 20th century trucks were busy carrying produce from those many farms into the city, where they were sold or transferred to markets elsewhere. The Regional Market in south Newburgh, for example, just west of Robinson Avenue was a big exchange point for farmers to sell fruits, vegetables, eggs and butter and was full of wagons and then canvas sided-trucks every market day.

As customers became interested in motorized vehicles, they came into downtown Newburgh to shop for them just as they shopped for other personal products. Along city streets, several old stables transformed into combination wagon and automobile repair shops. Owners of these shops registered with the many auto manufacturers to become licensed sales representatives for brands we barely recall: Marmons, Oaklands, Overlands, Hudsons, Earls, Paiges, Jewetts, and later Packards, Oldsmobiles and Hudsons. There weren’t acres of models in varieties of colors; just a few cars to choose from in a showroom.

Mechanics for early automobiles were most often general mechanics who learned the workings of these internal combustion engines and paced their way along their complexities. My husband’s South Street neighbor, Mr. Flynn, described what he claimed was the first car to come to Newburgh and told us it arrived by train and was towed up Broadway on a flatbed wagon pulled by a horse. Up west of Fowler Avenue, where Mr. Flynn’s father had a hotel that catered to farmers staying over after bringing their goods to market at the waterfront, a local mechanic was called in to look over the new motorized vehicle. He dismantled it in the side yard of the hotel and then reassembled it until he understood its workings. He drew quite a crowd of the curious. It wasn’t long before the railroad brought a few more automobiles and the transportation tide shifted. Small horse sheds all over Newburgh transitioned to being garages as old Sanborn plot maps show. And garages opened in many neighborhoods to cater to the maintenance of the new horseless carriages.

One was McKinley’s Garage at 231-235 Broadway across from Lutheran Street, built in 1927. Unlike older transitional buildings that first served horse-drawn vehicles, like the Blue Front Garage on lower Broadway, McKinley’s was set back from the street so customers could drive in for service and supplies. Brothers Robert and Samuel McKinley opened several gas and supply stations from Connecticut through the Hudson Valley as franchise owners for the Standard Oil Company as the car craze began. They also started the gas station that long operated at 358 Liberty Street south of Clinton Street. Perhaps the McKinleys were a bit overextended with all their regional stations, but they sold the Broadway property in 1931 and it became a new car dealership, Long’s Pontiac.

But builder J. W. Gurnee snapped a picture of his new creation in 1927 and left us a look at what auto service looked like a century ago. A neat brick service station held oil and tires and tire tubes and other accessories. Gasoline and air pumps stand around the driveway. Most intriguing is the lift situated out beside the sidewalk. Potential customers could see the intricacies of car repair as they walked by, and it may have brought the mechanics considerable new business in the 1920’s when cars were still hot new commodities.