LEGENDARY COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER

A Relic of the Past

Pictured above is the rusted out frame of a 1928-31 Model “A” Ford. How it got where it was found and when it was dumped there is anybody’s guess. The City of Salisbury is putting in a new sidewalk on the northeast corner of W. Main St. and Lake Streets. When the city employee operating the backhoe had dug down about two feet they chanced upon this frame. The only reasonable explanation is that when the area was first a cranberry bog and then a dump, it became a favorite spot to discard anything undesirable. The whole area between Lake St. and Cypress St. was at one time a cranberry bog. Being unsuitable for building any structure because of the instability of the ground, people started using the area as a dump.

The river never came up that far, so it was never dumped “overboard”. Mr. Phillips from Malone and Phillips told me that when he first started in the business almost 50 years ago, the company excavated the land for the old Grant’s Shopping Center on Cypress Street. He said they found many old parts of cars buried there. The “powers that be” determined they could stabilize the land to the extent that we now have a new fire house built over the old cranberry bog. Time will tell if the land is truly stable enough. There were cracks in the terrazzo floor in the museum even before the fire house officially opened.

Even though the relic is in such decrepit condition due to rust, there are still signs of what once was. The only thing on it that time has not claimed is the battery cable. Being made up of twisted lead cable, it is in its natural state and will never rust out. The hole can still be seen in the front where the hand crank was inserted to start the car. The steering column is still attached as are the brackets to which that the front bumpers were attached. To the left in the picture is the spare tire mount. The other parts of the car were probably used to repair another, since there were so many on the road at the time.

My thanks go out to Sue, Sandy, Howard Landon and John Slade from the Public Works Department for their help in preserving Salisbury’s history. The work they have done on this item and the “yellow brick” from Church Street have earned them our town’s gratitude. It takes people to recognize the past for someone like me to preserve it.

The mystery part is determining just when it was discarded there. I can only remember when there were many buildings in the area. The corner was the central point for a bustling commercial district. Bars, taxi stands, night clubs, a movie theater, the Acme super market and the infamous Dixie Bargain Center all held sway here in days gone by. Due to the era the car was built and the fact that they wouldn’t discard something new, it had to have been put there in the late 1940’s. What do you think?