Hello everyone,

In 2005 I bought a '57 Chevrolet 150 sedan from the original owner. An older lady who's father had bought it for her brand new. She said the car was bought new in Lexington, Kentucky. On the back is still the dealer name plate:



A few weeks ago my wife and I bought a 1937 Chevrolet 4 door out of Sommerset, Kentucky. I know the car had been local to Kentucky all it's life. This license plate frame was on the license plate when we got it:



Both these cars are from Kentucky, near the same area. Is it possible they were bought from the same dealership? The '37s history is as follows: Old lady owned it until her garage began to fall in in the 70s. A man bought it from her and drove it until the 80s. It sat in a garage for years until we bought it from the daughter of the man who bought it from the original owner.

I noticed the license plate frame has the indian heads on it, so obviously this had something to do with Pontiac.

I'm going to post this in the '57 Chevy forum as well.

Brandon

Well, what's funny is that I've had this car and polished that emblem (or tried to, it's much better now than when I got it) on the '57 for years and only JUST NOW as I posted this picture did I realize this says "L.R. Cooke" instead of L.A.Cooke. That explains why I've never been able to find anything.

I found this article about Cooke Pontiac:
Iinfo on Cooke Pontiac

Well, apparently Cooke Pontiac was in Louisville and L.[/b]R.[b] Cooke was in Lexington. Now I just wonder if they were related.


Brandon

L R Cooke Chevrolet 255 East Main Street Lexington,ky. started in 1936 and lasted for 35 years. I am not sure if connected with Cooke Pontiac in Louisville, Ky.

Thanks KW. I just took that address and went on to google maps. It's sad to see the empty parking lot now.

Brandon

That started some memories! When you mentioned LR Cooke being on Main St, I knew I had seen a postcard of the dealership on Main but also remember that I never went to that dealship on Main, it was on High St. I dug around and found Lexington phone directories from June 37 and May 51. Sometime between LR Cooke moved from Main to High St.



1937 Directory



1951 Directory

So, it appears that the 57 Chevy would have been bought at 180 E. High St.

Brian

Weird... the GMC and Willys/Jeep being at the same dealership...

Woah, nice find.

Here is a picture of each location of L.R. Cooke in Lexington.





Brandon

Hi, my name is Chris Cooke and I can tell you that L.R. and V.V Cooke were bothers. V.V. had V.V. Cooke Chevrolet and Pontiac, in Louisville and their other brother Almond Cooke (my grandfather) owned Broadway Chevrolet in Louisville.

Chris,
Thanks for letting us know of your relatives. It is always interesting to add personal knowledge to photos and other information.

I too am a relative of the Cooke family dealerships from Kentucky. There were 5 brothers, VV Cooke being probably the most successful in the dealership world. Its really cool to see some of my family history still being talked about.

This is really cool to hear. I just now found this thread again. My '57 still wears the original L.R. Cooke nameplate.