By Chris Dubuque….
Every now-and-then, a vintage photo emerges that draws us in and we want to understand more about it. Below is one such photo, a Citroën dealership whose sign reads, Ward & Wallace.
Who were Ward & Wallace? Where were they located? Can we learn anything about them? It turns out we can! Here is what we found.
THE BEGINNING
Leo J. Wallace (often referred to Rudy), was a native of Washington State with a background in music. Harry A. Ward, from Lewiston, Maine, owned a store that sold television sets. These two men came together and formed the Ward & Wallace car dealership in the summer of 1955.
Their first location was at the corner of Maine and Pleasant Streets in Brunswick, Maine. They quickly outgrew their original location, so in May of 1956, they moved to a new larger building on the Bath-Brunswick Highway in Brunswick, Maine.
RENAULT
Initially Ward & Wallace was a Volkswagen dealership, but by the end of 1956, after only a year with VW, they felt that Renault offered a better future in America than VW. So, they dropped VW altogether and instead picked up Renault. History would show how incredibly bad this decision was, but to give Harry Ward and Leo Wallace some credit, there was a brief period where the Renault Dauphine was selling insanely fast in the USA – Wikipedia reports that Renault sold 28000 Dauphines in the USA in 1957! Also, we read that while they had no problem selling VW’s, the supply of new cars from Germany was very poor. They claimed to have only received a fraction of the cars that they ordered from VW.
Ward and Wallace put a lot of effort into Renault. They even negotiated a deal with Renault to become not just a dealer, but also a distributor for Renault cars for the New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island. As a distributor, they would scout around these states and sign-up other dealerships to offer Renaults in a franchise arrangement. These other dealers would then order their cars through Ward & Wallace. Once new cars landed in Boston from France, they would be distributed to each of the franchised dealers. An ambitious plan and it looks like they did indeed sign up a handful of dealers around New England to sell their Renaults.
In late 1957, they added a second location in nearby Auburn, Maine at 170 Center Street, about 20 miles away from their other facility in Brunswick. Local papers raved about the new showroom, large service area, and spare part supplies in this new location.
Ward & Wallace also dabbled with Hillman and Saab, but these never really amounted to much for them.
CITROËN
Despite Renault’s impressive sales figures in 1957, Harry Ward and Leo Wallace soon pushed Renault into the background and their shifted focus to a new brand for them; Citroën. The very first connection that I can make between Ward & Wallace and Citroën was in early 1958.
Their building on the Bath-Brunswick Highway in Maine that had been used for Renault, was changed to be used for Citroën. The photo at the beginning of this article is their Brunswick facility, most likely taken soon after they became a Citroën dealer. I am guessing that the photo was most likely snapped in mid-1958.
DISTRIBUTORSHIP
In this era, there were two administrative directors for Citroën USA; one for the west coast and one for the east. A Frenchman named Charles Buchet was the administrative director for the east coast, operating out of New York City. Ward & Wallace negotiated a deal with Buchet to become a distributor for Citroën and Panhard cars for the New England states, similar to what they had done with Renault.
This arrangement was a bit unusual for Citroën, as most of the dealers across the USA that sold Citroëns worked directly with Citroën Cars Corporation, without intermediaries, middlemen, or local distributors.
Ward & Wallace was apparently quite successful signing up other New England dealers to offer Citroëns and Panhards. We found that they had 30 dealers franchised to sell Citroëns in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. By the middle of 1959, Ward & Wallace obtained a property in Somerville, Massachusetts to store their new cars upon arrival from France, before they were distributed out to their dealer network. Things seem to be going well…..or were they?
THE COLLAPSE
Despite all of their ambition and hard work, Harry Ward and Leo Wallace’s efforts did not work out. As we all know, the initial success with the Renault Dauphine was very short-lived and sales soon crashed. Wikipedia reports that in 1960, two ships loaded with Renault Dauphines were turned back mid-Atlantic because the docks in New York were already overcrowded with unsold Dauphines.
Also, Citroën sales never reached expectations in the USA. We couldn’t find sales data from the late 1950’s, but between 1964 and 1973 where data is available, Citroën was only able to sell an average of about 1000 cars a year, across the entire USA.
In the middle of 1960, they closed their Brunswick location. And a few months later, their Auburn location was transferred to a partner in the business named Roland G. Fortin. Fortin changed the name to Brunswick Car Center, but continued to offer Citroëns, briefly at least.
In 1960, roughly coincident with the collapse of their Brunswick and Auburn locations, Ward and Wallace are listed as having a Citroën dealership at 24 Raymond Street in Quincy, Massachusetts, but this location only lasted briefly – about a year. By early 1962, the Ward & Wallace empire was over.
What happened to the 30 or so franchised New England dealers who had been getting cars from Ward & Wallace? It looks like most of them gave up when Ward & Wallace failed. But a small number did survive as Citroën dealers – we presume that they re-negotiated with Citroën USA directly. The most notable of their dealers that continued with Citroën after the Ward & Wallace failure was Hoover Citroën in Boston, who stuck with it until Citroën stopped selling cars in the USA in 1972/1973.
One last thing – even though Harry Ward and Leo Wallace’s Citroën adventures only lasted a few years, over 60 years ago, Michael Cox found an obituary for Harry Ward’s son, Richard Ward, that has the following photo.
It’s interesting how Ward and Wheeler’s ad for the Saab 93 says it has 2 cylinders. The 93 has 3 cylinders. The model 92 that preceeded it had 2 in a transverse layout based on DKW engineering.