Chris Kraft Motors
331 W. 1st Ave.
Canby, Oregon

From the May 5, 1955 Canby Herald, here is an ad for Kris Craft Motors.  This is a scan from a print from a tempermental microfiche reader at the Canby Library, so the quality is marginal.  There were also several references to other businesses with the Kraft name in Canby, such as a bakery and barber shop:



The address was listed simply as 333 W. 1st Ave., but there is now a SW and NW 1st Ave.  This September 2004 photograph shows 333 SW 1st Ave., the most likely location because it is on the main highway through town.  (333 NW 1st Ave. is a parking lot adjacent to the railroad tracks, not a likely spot for a dealer.)  If this is the correct location of Kris Craft Motors, it is now a Les Schwab tire store.  Many other stores in this chain are built to a similar design, so it is very unlikely this is the original building:


Chris Kraft Motors did not carry the Willys line for very long.  The K-F Dealer List shows them as a Kaiser-Frazer dealer starting in 1947.  Chris Kraft Motors placed an ad for several years in the Canby High School yearbook.  This ad, from 1954, is the first mention of the Willys line:


Shortly after that, they also appeared in a 1955 Newspaper Ad in Portland, Oregon in addition to the large ad at the top of this page from the Canby Herald.  By 1956, the last year they advertised in the yearbook, they had become a Desoto-Plymouth dealer instead: