We've had quite
a bit of fun here over the years, checking out many great reports
from our good friend Greg Mattesen, about his
cars, and especially the many interesting places he's visited
with his cars. COMMON.GEAR/Shoreline Antique Auto
Connection:
"A Blast From The Past" - Greg
Mattesen's '63 VW at the old Lipman VW dealership, Talcottville,
CT, circa Summer 1990
(this page new as of 4/9/2007; latest
update as of 5/15, 6/19/2007)
Quick Navigational Links For This Page: Background | Photo Gallery | Ted Trudon Plate Frames (updated 5/15/2007) | Dave Irwin provides an even better copy of the historic Burkamp photo (section added as of 6/19/2007)
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We've had quite
a bit of fun here over the years, checking out many great reports
from our good friend Greg Mattesen, about his
cars, and especially the many interesting places he's visited
with his cars.
Many of Greg's travel reports have featured his beautiful 1963 VW Sedan, sometimes known as "Rachel," for which a special feature was put together a few years ago, with many collected images from the years he owned the car, and Greg's interesting story about tracking down the car's original owner. That feature was called: "Greg Mattesen Tracks Down The Original Owner Of His '63 VW Beetle..." and is located online at: http://members.aol.com/cgextras/GregMattesen63VWHistory.html .
April of 2007, incidentally, marks 17 years of ownership, Greg points out--please see THIS PICTURE Greg recently sent along on the day he acquired the car, April 16, 1990 (and note the sign for a famous NE CT diner in the left background of the image).
More recently, he's had his '63 VW very visibly out and about in support of a very worthy local cause, reference the report: "Greg Mattesen's Unique & Wonderful 'Old Car-Flavored' Show of O'Rourke's Diner Support, September 2006," located online at: http://members.aol.com/cgextras/GMattORourkesVWSep06.html .
In early April of 2007, an interesting newspaper clipping from a local-area newpaper serving north-central Connecticut known as the Journal Inquirer inspired Greg track down some photos from right around the time he first acquired his '63 VW, in the summer of 1990--and in true Greg fashion, they incorporated a rather significant and eye-catching photo-venue.
Greg's first
mention of the newspaper article came in an e-mail dated
4/3/2007, entitled "A cool newspaper clipping from
the past." Greg wrote:
"...My grandmother sent me the attached newspaper clipping showing the Ted Trudon VW dealership that used to be in Talcottville, CT (part of Vernon). What an awesome photo! Inside the showroom there is a banner that says Grand Opening, so this must have been when they first opened up. The cars appear to have hood crests--I think the dealership may have opened in 1961 or 1962... It was in a local regional newspaper, The Journal Inquirer. They do "flashback" photos of different interesting scenes from the area..."
The Journal Inquirer newspaper clipping that Greg scanned and sent along with his commentary is shown at the upper right, with a higher-resolution presentation of the newspaper's VW dealership photo viewable HERE.
In his note Greg also mentioned that a mutual Connecticut VW hobbyist friend, Bill Silvestri, owns a 1962 VW Convertible that was sold new at Ted Trudon! For all we know, Bill's '62 could've been one of the VWs in the vintage Ted Trudon dealership photo from the newspaper clipping! Click HERE for an image of Bill's magnificent '62, from April of 2006, when Bill had recently acquired it from a New Jersey VW collector. This particular '62 Convertible had been purchased at Ted Trudon when new, and then in 1984 by another long-time CT-based VW enthusiast and mutual friend, Jack Larson. Greg recalls that Jack had purchased the car from the previous owner in East Windsor, circa 1984, and that Jack knew the "pedigree" from the original Trudon sticker on the decklid.We photographed Jack's old '62 back in July 2004, at the "Time Machines" antique auto show in Durham, CT--THIS VIEW of the car, and THIS VIEW of Jack posing with it--both were part of our overall report on the event: http://members.aol.com/foxcraft/TM2004VWsReview.html .
Since it's not readable in the above scan, we transcribed the newspaper text that accompanied the "Flashback" feature, with the vintage Ted Trudon VW dealership photo, and it read as follows:
"FLASHBACK - This photograph is part of a regular series titled "Flashback" that is being printed on the Journal Inquirer's "Our Local Heritage" page. The photos were taken by Kenneth C. Burkamp, a professional photographer who took thousands of news and feature photos from the 1950s through modern times in the area of Eastern Connecticut ranging roughly from Manchester north to Enfield. This photo, which is believed to have been taken in the 1960s, shows the Ted Trudon Volkswagen dealership in the Talcottville section of Vernon."
The photos of Greg's own '63 VW mentioned at the beginning were prints, of course, and Greg made computer-scans of them, and circulated them also, along with some background. What do you know--they were photos from the very same VW dealership facility as was shown in the Journal Inquirer newspaper article! We liked them so much, we asked Greg's permission to share some here, for which he most graciously gave his approval. Along the way, we also were able to learn some very interesting facts about a very historical Connecticut Volkswagen dealership!
In his e-mail dated 4/4/2007, Greg wrote: "...Here's a photo of Rachel during the first summer that I owned her, taken from what looks like roughly the same angle as the newspaper photo. The building appeared to be bigger by 1990, however, so they must have expanded it (it looks so quaint and small in the newspaper photo). The dealership had just closed. Today the building still stands, but it is a Subaru dealership..."
The dealership,
at the time of Greg's photos, was called "Lipman
Volkswagen." It was located at 24 Hartford
Turnpike, in Vernon-Rockville, CT, right near the
Hartford/Tolland county line (and on the other side of the line,
it appears the road is called Tolland Turnpike; it also appears
to have state route designations 30 and 83 in this area). The
present-day Subaru dealership that is based in the building is
called "Suburban Subaru."
Per a suggestion from another mutual old-VW friend, Roland Metz, in keeping with the "1990-vintage" theme of Greg's photos, we found an offcial 1989-1990 Connecticut touism map in our files, scanned the location of the dealership on that map, and then placed an electronic arrow there. Click HERE for our scan of the map, with the blue arrow indicating the (then) Lipman Volkswagen dealership. It can be seen that the dealership is very close to Interstate 84, though I'm not sure if the dealership is actually visible from I-84.
Going back further in the world of Connecticut maps, Greg found a 1962 "Esso" map in his collection (this one is actually a 1962 "New England" map--note the "now defunct" Old Man of the Mountain image also...) and made us a scan of the area--we, in turn converted it into two scans--one a "medium" magnification (click HERE), and the other a "close up" magnification (click HERE)--and like with the '89/'90 CT tourism map, we've located the Trudon/Lipman dealership location with a blue arrow. Quoting from Greg's 4/10/2007 e-mail that accompanied the 1962 Esso map scan:
"...Here's a scan from a 1962 Esso map of Southern New England. I chose this one because it actually shows Talcottville as a town; some of my other maps didn't show it... It wasn't any trouble to scan it...You'll notice that on this map, I-84 is still designated only as route 15 (and US 44!). In 1962 it would have been a two lane divided highway, much like the Wilbur Cross and Merritt Parkways in southern Connecticut. Check out the dashed lines showing the proposed Hartford bypass loop, which was actually started, but never completed (parts of it became I-291, route 3, and route 9). I-84 west of Hartford, and I-91 south of the capital were still under construction..."
Greg was very gracious to fill us in on what he knows of the background history of the dealership:
"...This dealership didn't go through too many ownership changes. After Ted Trudon, it became Tolland County Volkswagen in the early '70s. I believe that it was owned by the same people who owned Bill Barry VW in West Hartford during that time. Then it became Lipman VW in the late '80s for a few years before the "point" was sold to Bob Riley Oldsmobile, which was around the corner in Manchester...The point eventually closed in the mid-'90s..."
When I asked a couple of follow-up questions to Greg about the history of the dealershpis that had occupied this building, Greg dug a little deeper into what he knew. From a follow-up e-mail dated 4/5/2007, Greg writes:
"...The earliest VW dealer directory that I have is from 1/63. Ted Trudon is listed as a dealership as of that point. I also have a dealer directory from 4/73 showing Ted Trudon at route 83 in Talcottville, so they hadn't been bought out by Tolland yet. I don't have any other directories from the '70s, so I can't narrow down the change in ownership any more than this.
The dealer directories refer to the business as Tolland Volkswagen Corp. after the Ted Trudon days, but the dealership was more commonly known as Tolland County VW (I remember this distinctly from their dealership stickers on the rear of cars; makes more sense since the dealership was not in Tolland, although it was in Tolland County). Tolland is listed as the dealership at that location in my directories from 1980 through the 11/84 directory. In the 5/85 directory, Lipman becomes the dealership at that location. So clearly, Tolland County changed hands and became Lipman in late '84 or early '85.
Lipman is listed as the dealership name in the February 1990 directory, but since my photo of my '63 in front of the closed dealership is from the summer of 1990, Lipman went out of business in 1990 sometime. Bob Riley took over the franchise at that point, moving it to 259 Adams Street in Manchester, where they were in business until 1995. At that point the franchise was terminated, as VW worked to consolidate the number of franchises in the Hartford area..."
When I asked Greg one more follow-up question about the specific occasion of driving his '63 VW to the dealership for these great photos, he followed up with this additional background, in an e-mail dated 4/6/2007:
"...I was actually working right around the corner from the dealership when this photo was taken in the summer of 1990. I was about to return to college that fall (at Eastern Connecticut State University to get my teaching certification), and I was working at the CUNO mill in Talcottville second shift that summer. It was a 25 mile commute from Stafford Springs, and the car did great. I must have stopped at the dealership before work. I definitely wanted to have an opportunity to take some photos before the place disappeared, and I wanted to get a photo of the '63 parked near the "VW Used Cars" sign. Unfortunately, all the photos are overexposed (at least the car is). Unlike digital, I wasn't able to tell that the photos were too bright until they came back from developing, and I never made another attempt to get any pictures there. Here are a couple more from that same day, adjusted slightly to make the scans slightly darker..."
As for the relative amount of overexposure, and what Greg did in his computer scans to try to compensate, I'd say they give an almost "vintage postcard look" to the shots, which I think only adds to their charm! Along with the fantastic shot provided in the above section (love that "old school" blue CT plate!), please continue down to the "Photo Gallery" below, for a couple more wonderful images. It is somewhat noticeable studying the color of Greg's '63 as shown in the pictures on the previously mentioned "history" page: "Greg Mattesen Tracks Down The Original Owner Of His '63 VW Beetle..." - http://members.aol.com/cgextras/GregMattesen63VWHistory.html - that the color of Greg's '63 there looks slightly different than the circa-1990 images shown on this page. Greg noted that the car, in fact, had been repainted a lighter blue color (compared to original) prior to his ownership. Quoting from his e-mail dated 4/10/2007:
"...The car was that hideous color blue when I bought it, and it was nowhere near the original turquoise color. Although the car looks slightly bright and washed-out in the (1990) photos, it's actually a pretty fair representation of the color that the car was at that time..."
When Greg had the car repainted in March of 1995 (as documented on the "history" page mentioned above), he went for strict authenticity, with the proper VW color code L380 "Turquoise" (a.k.a. "Turkis" in "VW-speak"); the interior paint was in such good shape, that Greg was able to leave it "as is."
We wish to thank Greg once again for sharing his wonderful photographic talents, not to mention his considerable Volkswagen Historian skills!
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BELOW: "Vintage Car, Vintage Dealership" - Here is some wonderful old-time Volkswagen dealsership signage, including the big round VW symbol "lollipop" mounted on a pole, and also on the wall of the building at the left, and that very familiar all-caps typeface "VOLKSWAGEN" across the top of the building. The "Lipman" script sign is also visible on the stand-alone sign on the top of the building, and you can also slightly make it out next to the round VW symbol on the building wall, at the far left. And of course, Greg's '63 VW in front perfectly completes the scene.
BELOW: And we couldn't help trying a "watercolor" effect for this last wonderful shot of Greg's--and being the gracious man he is, Greg didn't complain about our tampering--but we've also made sure to upload the unaltered original which is viewable HERE. Thanks again Greg!
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Ted Trudon License Plate Frames
As we were working on this page, we remembered Greg and Bill mentioning they had original "Ted Trudon" cast-metal license plate frames, and both men were very gracious to provide accompanying photos. These frames, with their cast-in lettering, highlighted in white, on blue backgrounds, are now highly collectible themselves, within the antique Volkswagen hobby world. Thanks again guys for your help!
BELOW: Bill Silvestri's original Ted Trudon license plate frame, as it appears currently on the back of his magnificent, original Ted Trudon-sold, 1962 VW Convertible.
BELOW: Greg Mattesen's original Ted Trudon license plate frame, photographed by Greg adorning a vintage Connecticut "blue" passenger plate--and, fittingly for this feature page, with the trunk lid of Greg's turquoise '63 VW as background.
BELOW: This photo is by Greg, from the Connecticut Volkswagen Association's "Spring Dust Off" event, Sunday, April 29th, 2007, at Mansfield Hollow State Park. It shows an original Trudon frame on the back of Clay & Mary Smith's well-known 1962 VW hi-roof panel truck. (this photo was added to this page as of 5/15/2007)
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Dave Irwin provides an even better copy of the historic Burkamp photo (this section added 6/19/2007)
In an e-mail dated early May, 2007, our old VW friend Dave Irwin (Sketch483@aol.com) checked in with a very nice clear & sharp electronic copy of the Burkamp Trudon VW photo that is the basis for this page. Quoting Dave's e-mail about the origin of his copy: "...I had an 8 x 10 made from the original negative taken by the photographer Kenneth C. Burkamp that originally took the photo...Dave" Wow--very cool, Dave--and Thanks!
BELOW is a reduced version of Dave's copy, and a nice high-res copy is viewable by clicking on the image below, or on this link: http://members.aol.com/cgextras/DITrudonImage75.jpg
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