“Wheels of Change” is more than just a metaphor. Walk through Downtown Naperville today, and you will pass clothing stores, restaurants, ice cream shops, jewelry stores, Anderson’s, the Apple Store, etc. But there are a few things you can’t buy downtown, like a Buick.
For that, you’d need to go to a dealership, where several acres of land are dedicated to selling cars. Dozens of this year’s new makes and models sparkle in the sun, waiting for their new owners to drive them off the lot. “Wheels of Change” explores how that was not always the case–there was a time when you could buy a Buick downtown. Or a Pontiac. Or a Chevrolet (The selection was also a lot smaller).
Automobile dealerships were once located in Downtown Naperville, as they were in downtowns all across the United States in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The Automobile Dealership industry changed since those days, as has the impact of the dealerships on their communities– just as the impact of automobiles on American culture has changed.
“Wheels of Change” uses interviews with local historians Bryan Ogg, Curator of Research for Naper Settlement and the Naperville Heritage Society; and Ann Durkin Keating, Dr. C. Frederick Toenniges Professor of History at North Central College to lend their perspective as a whole, while local dealers Robert Van Iten, and Service Station owners Ed Olson and Tom Priz give their first-hand accounts of working in downtown Naperville in the 1960s and 1970s.
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