Leo Stark Buick Dealership, Monett Missouri

Leo Stark's grandson recently posted on another thread and in lieu of hijacking that one I thought I would post some pictures of the dealership here. These are negatives that were purchased on eBay by a fellow '54 Buick enthusiast. Recognize any of these gentlemen Olds Boy? Perhaps one is your grandfather?

I think I asked earlier, is the building still there and if so how is it being used?

Olds Boy, you have a private message.

Transferring Olds Boys pics to here...

Great old photos, enhanced by the fact that they are of Buicks.

Great old photos, enhanced by the fact that they are of Buicks.

and enhanced even further by the fact they are of 1954 Buicks.

Google says the building is still there but no longer serves to display beautiful Buick's for sale. May be worth a side trip in '15 to park in front of for a photo shoot though. If you will notice, the light that is in between the two gas pumps in the original photos IS STILL THERE!!! How awesome. hmmmm, wonder what size bolts those are holding it the base. Could someone do me a favor and go on over and hit them with some PBBlaster... Wait, is that a cop car already there?..... never mind.....

Thanks ElDiablo for finding and sending me this. You da man...

That's awesome. I love old dealerships, gas stations and such from this by-gone era and nice to know they still exist. If an old car fan was close, this would a building to keep on the radar for purchase.

Monett is not much of a detour when driving route 66..which we probably will do next month again. Already more or less planned to see what happened to the dealership that sold my 73 Riviera when new in Springfield, MO. (Vincel; I believe it now houses a Lexus dealer)

Google says the building is still there but no longer serves to display beautiful Buick's for sale. May be worth a side trip in '15 to park in front of for a photo shoot though. If you will notice, the light that is in between the two gas pumps in the original photos IS STILL THERE!!! How awesome. hmmmm, wonder what size bolts those are holding it the base. Could someone do me a favor and go on over and hit them with some PBBlaster... Wait, is that a cop car already there?..... never mind.....

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Thanks ElDiablo for finding and sending me this. You da man...

Larmar, just awesome, just awesome.

That's cool, the private message didn't get to me! The man in the middle is Leo Stark and the man to the left is his brother Wayne. I have been there many times before. He sold that building to his younger brother Carl Stark, who kept the Buick dealership there clear up to probably the 90's! Leo started the Oldsmobile dealership after selling the Buick dealership. He sold out to retire in the early 80s. I have pics of him and I on the showroom floor of the Olds dealership.

I remember Leo Stark Buick dealership, as I grew up near there. Leo's daughter Susie Stark was very popular and a few years ahead of me in school. The building, located at 7th and Broadway changed hands and is now used by B&W Engine Rebuilders, but it looks exactly the same. B&W does excellent work and their specialty is rebuilding race engines. I had them polish the crank on the 261 I put into my '53 Chevy convertible. The building is also used by Bremer Welding--another good guy who does excellent fabrication and welding.

Way cool

The little town of Monett had Mix Davis' Chevrolet dealership a block off Broadway on 3rd St., Leo Stark's Buick dealership at 7th and Broadway, Tommy Young's Pontiac showroom at 503 Broadway, and a Ford dealer, whose name I have forgotten who was located catty-corner from Leo Stark. All dealerships are gone today, and the little town of Monett, while still very prosperous, does not have a new-car dealer. There are a couple of new tractor dealerships not too far out of town tho.

I worked in the local Rexall drugstore while in High School, and so would hear lots of stories about people in the town. I didn't hear any stories about Leo Stark, (Or his gorgeous daughter Susie!) but Tommy Young, the Pontiac dealer, was water skiing down at the lake one day, and hit a small wave which caused him to bounce up in the air unexpectedly. This caused his upper set of false teeth to pop out of his mouth. Tommy never let go of the tow rope, he only grabbed at the teeth, caught them, stuck them back in his mouth and kept water skiing.

We lived out in the Country, and Mix Davis Chevrolet owned a billboard on our land that paid my Pop $25 rent every year. Every year he had to go down to the dealership and collect his check. After I got out of the Army in 1971 my Mom said the $25 had not been collected for some years, and so I went down asked for the money. They checked their books and gave me 2 years back rent, but said that they weren't going to pay anything in the future--the billboard was a bit ratty at that point. After that year was up I chopped that sucker down and used the poles for fence posts.

The little town of Monett , while still very prosperous, does not have a new-car dealer. There are a couple of new tractor dealerships not too far out of town tho.

My younger daughter works for Jack Henry and Assoc. whose headquarters is in Monett. While Monett might not have any car dealerships, it is home to the two corporate jets that belong to Jack Henry and Assoc. It takes my daughter longer to drive from the Jack Henry offices in KC to Monett than it does for her to fly to either coast.

I'm familiar with Jack Henry--a truly innovative small-town success story that has grown from a couple of guys renting space on Broadway, to a multi-billion buck organization still home-based in Monett. That's one reason I described the place as very prosperous. I have a friend who is one of J.H.s pilots. Like a lot of J.H. employees, he was hired right out of school--in his case flight school. He gave me and my nephew a tour of J.H. hangar at the Monett airport and showed my nephew around one of their (I believe) Mitsubishi passenger jets. This is the jet.