Park Motors
1335 Park Street
Peekskill, New York
Hats off to Jon from New York, submitting two pictures. The black and white picture is from 1975 tax records and the color picture was taken by Jon in June 2003. He spoke with Alex "Buddy" Risoli, who has been there since the Willys years and is now the current owner. Buddy's father-in-law, Gerald R. Chefalo, was the original owner of the dealership, established in the early 1940's.
The original building (Not seen, at rear, used as a garage) dates from 1906 and was used for cold storage when the property was a dairy. Buddy remembered seeing blocks of ice in use for that purpose. The front structure, as seen in both pictures, was added in 1947 by Mr. Chefalo as a showroom for the dealership. The dealership carried Willys, Kaiser-Frazer and International Harvester trucks and buses. After 1957, Park Motors carried only the International-Harvester line. In the 1975 picture, a large "International" sign extends across the two plate glass windows. Park Motors later stopped selling International-Harvester and became a repair garage which is still in operation today.