Roslyn Motors supplied and serviced Lincoln automobiles to Long Island from 1926 to 1930. Amazingly, three buildings associated with this dealership are still standing and have been profiled on the website:
- Lincoln Building showroom, 2 Main Street, Roslyn
- Lincoln Dealership Service Station, 1170 Old Northern Boulevard, Roslyn
- Lincoln Dealership Garages, 99 Glen Avenue, Roslyn
Automotive historian Walt Gosden, a friend of the Roslyn Landmark Society, profiled Roslyn Motors in the May 2019 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.
Roslyn Motors
Long Island’s exclusive dealer of coachbuilt 1920s Lincolns
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The Model L Lincoln was the premier luxury car offered by the Ford Motor Company in the 1920s. Although a variety of factory coachwork body styles were available to customers, the chassis was also a favorite of body builders as the demand for a custom-bodied Lincoln was significant. The Lincoln Motor Car Company heavily promoted its custom-bodied cars with lavish full-color sales catalogs and portfolios, as well as with its in-house magazine specifically showcasing the custom-bodied cars that could be ordered.
"Lincoln Motor Cars Exclusively," proclaimed Roslyn Motors in its full-page advertisement in the souvenir program for the Automobile Salon held at the Hotel Commodore in New York City from November 18 to December 4, 1926. The Annual Automobile Salons at the Commodore were not open to the general public but were by invitation only.
"The Automobile Salon is an established institution," proclaimed the organizers, and "It is dedicated to the display, amid appropriate surroundings, of all that is fashionable and really meritorious in high-grade motor car chassis and custom coachwork." Thus the Salon was not an annual car show with examples of various makes in standard factory-produced body styles. Rather, it featured cars with coachwork—all custom designed and built to order— on high-grade luxury car chassis.
The Lincoln Model L was what Roslyn Motors sold, and although a factory-designed and -built body could be ordered and purchased from Roslyn, most often it was a car with a custom body. Its showroom was located in a building still standing in the village of Roslyn, New York, on Long Island, just 23 miles east of Manhattan. Its advertisement in the New York Salon catalog noted it was "at the Clock Tower" in Roslyn. The firm also had other New York dealerships located in Flushing, Queens, and Southampton. Roslyn Motors boasted in its 1926 Salon catalog: "Popular custom-built bodies are constantly available at our showrooms located at points most convenient for Long Island residents."
Roslyn Motors advertised in the New York Salon catalogs in 1926 and 1927. Ads in these catalogs were not inexpensive. Although Roslyn Motors represented Long Island, in nearby New York City there were other major Lincoln dealers like Park Central Motors located at Park Avenue and 46th Street, and Theodore Luce at 1760 Broadway. Both were major dealers in Lincoln motor cars with factory and custom-built coachwork. These dealers were competition for Roslyn Motors to a certain extent. If a person resided on Long Island but worked in Manhattan, each day he would more likely see the city dealers. The body designers and builders were mainly located in major cities during that era, not on Long Island. An exception was Cantrell in Huntington, which built wood station wagons. We do not have proof that Cantrell ever built a station wagon body on a Lincoln chassis, but that coachbuilder did fabricate them for other Classic Era chassis such as those used by Franklin and the Buick 90 series.
Roslyn Motors supplied the gentry of Long Island with coachbuilt Lincolns from 1926 up until approximately 1930 when The Great Depression just about wiped out all the custom body builders nationwide. Now, nearly 90 years after Roslyn Motors stopped selling custom-bodied Lincolns, it's a treasure that the building that housed the company still exists, and still appears essentially the same as it did when motorcars graced the showroom floors within.
2 Comments
Douglas, the building was always called the Lincoln Building. I always thought it was named after President Lincoln!
Have lived in the area for many years and had no idea Lincoln had a custom dealership in Roslyn; second the praise that the building that housed the company still exists.