Seattle Citroën
Photo Sleuths #6
UPDATED 11/2025
Have a vintage photo of a Citroën in the USA or Canada? Send it in and we will see what we can learn about it!
HINSDALE, ILLINOIS, MID-1960's
The clues for this one are the businesses in the background. A bit of googling quickly revealed that Schoen's Clothing has been a fixture in Hinsdale, Illinois for decades. Hinsdale is a suburb of Chicago.
Google street view
NOW
THEN
The wagon is 1965 or earlier since it has the older 165X400 tires and DS19 style hubcaps. It has a second-generation nose, so it must be a 1963-1965. The only color that matches the color in the photo for these 3 years is Gris Sable (sand gray, AC104) which was only offered in 1963. As a result, I think that the wagon is probably a 1963. The photo was likely taken in the mid-1960’s.
Two questions come to mind: 1) I wonder what he was doing under the hood? And 2), what happened to the rear door?
The only dealer in Chicago at the time was Midwest Auto Imports, so it is pretty likely that the car came from there. Midwest Auto Imports was in a pretty impressive building at 44 North Laramie Avenue. The building is still there, now a church.
Google street view
44 NORTH LARAMIE AVENUE TODAY
MIDWEST AUTO IMPORTS
VANCOUVER BC, EARLY 1970's
The clue for locating this one was to notice that the Ford van in the foreground is labelled as a Mercury if you zoom in. In the USA this was a Ford Econoline but in Canada they were rebadged as a Mercury Econoline. So we are in Canada. I googled "Super Valu grocery store with curved roof in Canada" and I eventually came up with the answer: 3250 West Broadway in Vancouver. Unfortunately, absolutely nothing remains of the older buildings in the current view.
THEN
The DS is 1968 - 1971 Canadian model Pallas (Euro headlights, old door handles, Pallas side trim). The newest car in the photo seems to either be the DS or the 1970 Cadillac on the far left, so the photo is probably early 1970’s.
Google Street View
NOW
STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA, ~1970
This one took several months of on-and-off work to figure out, but I finally got it! I wasted hours trying to use the distinctive sculpture as a clue, but no luck. The successful approach was to notice that there were both Citroëns and Austin Americas on the same car lot. I started looking for car dealers in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s who handled both marques. Finally, I hit on it: Weiser Imported Cars at 3220 W. College Avenue, State College, Pennsylvania. And the sculpture does indeed show up in some of their advertisements, such as the one shown below.
Google Street View
NOW A VW / AUDI DEALERSHIP
WEISER IMPORTED CARS, IN PENNSYLVANIA, ABOUT 1970
Weiser started up in 1957 and remained in business until 1972 at which time the business was sold and became Leitzinger Imports. It looks like Weiser was a Citroën dealer just for a year or two in about 1970-1971. Today, a VW/Audi dealership is on the property.
Both DS’s have side marker lights, so they are 1969 ½ or later. I am willing to bet that the sedan is a 1969 ½ since someone removed the headrests (the headrests on US model DS's in 1969 ½ were widely disliked and often removed - see a headrest summary HERE). If you look really carefully, there is a Mehari hiding in the photo.
Centre Daily Times, March 1970
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 1963-1964
We were recently forwarded two black and white photos of a DS to see if we could figure them out.
The first photo appears to have a French Gendarme saluting a DS with a distinctive doorway in the background. A clue that this photo could have been taken in North America is that the car has Lucas turn signals. The solution came easily by cropping out the car and the Gendarme and then doing a reverse image search of the doorway. I quickly discovered that this photo was of the east entrance to the San Francisco City Hall.
Google Street View
Google Street View
SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL
The second photo has a DS with some sort of diplomatic flags mounted on the front fenders. Two more police are in the photo, but this time their uniforms look American.
The clue for this second photo is to notice the "City of Paris" sign on farthest tower (it can barely be seen). After bit of Googling, it turns out that there used to be a department store in downtown San Francisco called, City of Paris that was torn down in 1980. After looking at maps of San Francisco, I discovered that the photo was taken in Union Square, an open green space park in downtown San Francisco. It looks like one of the original palm trees might still be standing.
Google Street View
UNION SQUARE, SAN FRANCISCO
The car has the second-generation nose and a white steering wheel wrap. This makes the car a 1963 or 1964 ID19 in Blanc Paros, AC102. It seems likely that both photos are of the same car and were likely taken when the car was new. The photos appear to be from an organized photoshoot, likely a Citroën advertising or promotional effort.
GASPE PENINSULA, QUEBEC, 1962
A photo was recently sent to me of a crashed DS. If you zoom in, you can see that the photo was likely taken in Canada due to a Quebec license plate. The original photo that I was provided had a watermark from a museum, so I contacted the museum and was able to purchase the photo for a nominal fee. It turns out that they had a second photo from a slightly different angle that I also purchased. The museum was called, Musee de la Gaspesie, located on the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec. Using a short narrative description that was the museum was able to provide and articles I found in period newspapers, I was able to learn a bit about the accident.
Musee de la Gaspesie
Musee de la Gaspesie
It turns out that two employees from a local TV station were on their way to an event on October 12, 1962 when their car ran into the back of a truck that was stopped in the middle of a dark road at night. The accident occurred on Route 132, near Anse-à-Brillant on the Gaspe Peninsula on the Southeast side of Quebec. They were killed instantly. The car was apparently moved a short distance from the accident site to a field with other derelict cars. While I cannot be 100% sure of the exact location of the photos, I think the field in the current view is close.
Musee de la Gaspesie
Google Street View
The car has vents on the front fenders, so it has to be a 1960-1962 DS19. The Lucas turn signals indicate that it was a North American model.
MONTREAL, 1976
I tinkered with this photo sporadically for several years, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. But I tried again recently and within 5 minutes I had found it! I have no idea why it came so easily on this attempt and on none of the earlier attmepts. It is located at 4660 Rue de Grand-Pré, in Montreal. Once I identified the house, googling the address revealed that it is a bit famous. I found an article about the house in La Presse newspaper which indicates that the house was built in about 1875 and was home to a mayor of Montreal in the late 1800’s. A bit more Googling revealed that Sears was in the process of replacing the roof when the photo was taken, thus explaining the van’s presence. I discovered that the photo was taken in 1976.
City of Montreal Archives
Google Street View
The Citroën is a D-Special based on the trunk emblem. It has flat door handles and North American lighting, so it must be a 1972. Note that by mid-1971, Canadian DS’s had all of the USA modifications, including the exterior lighting, US-style rear bumper, etc.
COWANS FORD DAM, NORTH CAROLINA, MID-1970's
This photo showed up recently, but I had no idea where it came from, nor any clues about it. The car is sitting in front of a dam, but which one? According to Wikipedia, there are almost 90000 dams in North America, so it seemed like an overwhelming task to find this one. But due to the power wires in the photo, I assumed that this was a hydroelectric dam, which reduced the number to about 2900 (2400 in the USA and 500 in Canada). It still took a long time, but eventually, I found it. It turns out that the DS is sitting on the grass in front of Cowans Ford Dam in North Carolina (about an hour north of Charlotte). Getting a current view was complicated by the fact that Google Street View doesn’t work that well near dams, but Google Earth Pro came through. The DS was sitting roughly where I have drawn the yellow circle in the current view.
The car is a 1972 DS21 Pallas in USA trim in what appears to be Vert Argente (AC 527). The car looks pretty new so I am guessing that the photo was taken in the mid-1970’s.
Google Earth Pro
ABESCON, NJ, ~1970
Several photos of a flying DS turned up recently. The key to solving this one is to notice that the business had both Citroën's and Austin Americas on the lot. This quickly led to a dealership called, G&L Auto Sales, located at 425 White Horse Pike in Abescon, New Jersey. It looks like they were a Citroën dealer from about 1960 to the mid-1970's.
Google Street View 2025
Google Street View 2021
G&L Auto Sales is long gone, but the building is still there. Since Austin Americas were only sold in the USA between 1968 and 1972, the photo must be from that era. I cannot see enough details to figure out the year of the flying DS, but it must be 1964 or earlier since it has Lucas twist-off tail lights. I think it has a first generation front bumper which means it might be a 1962 or earlier. So my best guess is that it is a 1958-1962.
I have been told that the stand that the DS is mounted on at G&L Auto Sales is the same one that was holding the DS up in the following photo, from the 1959 International Trade Show in New York. Charles Buchet, one of the very early Citroën employees in USA in the early 1950's, is standing on the left. Actor Maurice Chevalier is in the center. The car on the stand in the trade show is not the same car at G&L Auto Sales however.
1959 TRADE SHOW IN NYC CHARLES BUCHET (LEFT) AND MAURICE CHEVALLIER (CENTER)
