Halsey-Packard Building: The Packard Palace

Oscar Lawrence (O.L.) Halsey, the first car dealer in St. Louis, built the historic automotive facility in 1913 to serve as a St. Louis Packard Motor Car Co. dealership and distributorship; the first and longest-operated Packard automobile dealership in the St. Louis market. In 1914, Halsey opened the first newly-built car dealership in St. Louis, deemed the "Packard Palace," a luxurious three-story showroom designed by architect John Ludwig Wees; one of the first and possibly the most luxurious dealership facilities in the city. By 1915, Halsey moved to Boston and transferred ownership to Packard, making it a direct factory outlet where one could buy Packard's legendary "Twin Six," V-12 models. In 1923, George M. Berry, a Packard dealer, took over the building and its operations, selling Packards from the building until 1953, shortly before the Packard Motor Car Company folded.

Brothers James Ward Packard and William Doud Packard produced the first Packard model in 1899, which led them to establish the Ohio Automobile Company in 1900, located in Warren, Ohio. In 1902, Henry B. Joy gained control of the company, changed its name to Packard Motor Co., and moved operations to Detroit.  Packards emerged as the world's most popular luxury automobile during the interwar period, out-selling all other luxury car competitors. Packards catered to the wealthy, enjoying a reputation for fine craftsmanship, modestly contemporary design, and exceptional durability and performance. 

Pioneer automobile salesman Oscar Lawrence Halsey introduced Packards to St. Louis in 1900 and, within two years, had become the marque's only dealer in the region. A native of New York, Halsey worked as a traveling salesman in St. Louis until 1900 when he took an interest in car sales. By 1920, he helped organize the St. Louis Auto Club (the first in Missouri) to counter stern automobile restrictions enacted by the city and state such as nine-mile-per-hour speed limits and laws requiring motorists to sound a horn in time to give carriage drivers time to alight and hold the frightened horse. Hasey enjoyed almost immediate success, concentrating almost exclusively on high-grade automobiles. Within a couple of years, he moved to an aprtment in an upscale neighborhood in St. Louis; he eventually became immensely wealthy. He became one of the city's most prominent and respected car dealers, serving three consecutive one-year terms as president of the St. Louis Automobile Dealers Association from 1908 through 1910. Halsey was the second-ever president of the club, which started in 1907, and the only president to serve three terms in the first ten years of the club's existence.

Owning one of Halsey's cars required a sizable financial investment. Purchasing a 1907 Packard, for instance, cost $7,000, equivalent to roughly $220,000 in the 2020s economy. By contrast, a Ford Model-T in 1908 cost around $330 ($10,000 in modern terms). In 1909, St. Louis residents had access to more than 1,000 cars made available to them by 104 automakers, and Halsey sold a substantial portion of those vehicles. By 1912, Hasley's dealership business had grown to a robust $750,000 a year, but he also began to focus almost solely on the Packard. Unlike other dealers that preferred high-volume sales by operating or enjoying associations with multiple dealerships, Packard ostensibly chose quality over quantity, focusing its efforts on selling cars to the wealthy. The Halsey Automobile Company stood as the exclusive St. Louis Packard dealer and regional distributor, and it remained that way until the 1940s. 

On October 1912, Halsey acquired the historic property in a rapidly changing residential neighborhood at an opportune moment when the land was relatively cheap. Most early St. Louis automobile dealerships purchased storefront buildings and repair garages and transformed them into car dealerships; custom-built dealership buildings did not exist before Hasley developed plans for the now-historic building. Even compared to newly-built showrooms built after Hasley's Packard Palace opened, Halsey's plans seemed palatial and costly, which suited the Packard (and Hasley's) image.

Architect John Ludwig Wees, born in Alsace-Lorraine and educated in Heidelberg, studied architecture in Paris. He immigrated to the United States in 1879 and then moved to St Louis in 1882. Wees designed the Packard Palace. The structure consisted of concrete and steel frames and sturdy underpinnings to support heavy loads, one of the earliest automotive facilities in the city to use reinforced concrete as a structural element. Wees borrowed from the contemporary Viennese Secession movement and Frank Lloyd Wright in developing a luxurious building with plenty of color and ornamentation. Indeed, the Halsey-Packard Building grand showroom spanned 50' x 98' with twenty-five-foot ceilings. Amenities included showers for the sales and shop forces, two electric elevators (one, the city's largest), an innovative rooftop area capable of testing cars, and mahogany fixtures and furniture. 

Additionally, the design included large display windows for showcasing as many models as possible and a modern service department. Until the mid-1920s, many Packards were sold with both summer and winter bodies (mostly of wood). Changes took place at the dealership, where the out-of-season car body was shed, varnished, dried, and stored on hooks (in rented space) until the customer drove back in for the next season. 

Packard seized the opportunity to become a pacesetter in the more populist "good roads" movement when company President Henry B. Joy joined the Lincoln Highway Association in 1913 and donated $ 150,000 (roughly $3 million today) plus pro bono legal work, which assured constant press coverage as the country worked on completing its first transcontinental road. In 1914, Packard produced the nation's first 12-cylinder car, the now-famous Packard Twin Six. In 1915, Joy and a mechanic drove it from Detroit to San Francisco, following the incomplete Lincoln Highway, in an unimaginable twenty-one days. 

That same year, Halsey surprised his peers when he announced his move to Boston, where he become President of the Chalmers Motor Car Company of Boston. Packard Motor Sales Company (a collaboration of two Packard syndicates from Cleveland and Cincinnati) assumed title to the St. Louis building from Halsey Auto Company. In the years immediately after Hasley departed St. Louis, attention turned to Europe. Indeed, World War I greatly hindered the nation's automotive and road-building progress. The U.S. entered the war shortly after President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Aid Road Act in 1916, establishing a national highway system. As well, Packard produced a record 10,000 cars in 1916. But, during wartime, the company turned its production efforts toward creating the lauded Liberty airplane engine.

On January 2, 1923, George M. Berry's Berry Motor Car Company assumed control of the St. Louis operation. Packard kept the dealership open as its exclusive St. Louis dealership until the 1940s when, for the first time, competing Packard dealerships opened. The year Berry took control of the Packard dealership, he also become a Director of the Automobile Club of Missouri, Director of the St. Louis Convention Publicity Bureau, and Director of the St. Louis Automobile Dealers Association. He later became involved with the Community Fund Campaign and the Chamber of Commerce. A lifelong bachelor, Berry's community involvement continued throughout his life, which included providing a significant financial gift to help establish Boys Town in Nebraska.

In 1928, Packard introduced its pelican-based coat of arms and the first diesel car in the United States, a Packard with a Cummins engine, the same year Berry spent $10,000 to alter the St. Louis salesroom. But the Great Depression devastated the luxury car market, with Packard and other luxury dealers forced to lay off numerous employees (although many of the owners retained their wealth). In 1935, Packard introduced its first car priced at less than $1,000. The luxury dealer ultimately managed to survive the Great Depression, but then World War II and gas rationing again proved challenging to the Packard company. Furthermore, the war effort pushed Packard factories to produce engines for PT boats and airplanes. Despite the challenges, the Packard stood as the only independent car maker of forty-two to have showcased a car in 1900 at Madison Square Garden and still make cars by the 1940s. 

In fact, by 1948, earnings had risen to the best record since 1929 and the future looked promising. But the Post-war market slumped badly in 1952. Companies began to consider mergers. Packard refused an offer to merge from the NashKelvinator Corp; "Nash" merged with Hudson to form American Motors. On October 1, 1954, Packard merged with Studebaker, but the consolidation did not succeed; the final Packard rolled out of the factory in 1958 as nothing more than a Studebaker with Packard badges, referred to as a "Packabaker."

Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Berry Motor sold the property in 1953. Ownership of the building changed hands throughout the twentieth century. Finally, in 2005, Packard Lofts, LLC., purchased the property and transformed the building into a loft-style apartment complex.

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