Seattle Citroën
Photo Sleuths #8
UPDATED 10/2026
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!
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, ~1966
This one should have been easy since the photo is labelled from the Montreal City Archives. But I couldn't figure it out. Finally, someone else on the internet solved it. The photo was taken at Rue des Carrières & Avenue De Lorimier, looking North.
The photo was supposedly taken in 1966. It looks like nearly all of the buildings have been replaced since the photo was taken, but there are two chimneys in the background to help verify that it is indeed the correct location.
Montreal City Archives
THEN
Google street view
NOW
The DS wagon is a 2nd generation nose and single lug wheels so a 1963-1965.
WARRIOR, ALABAMA, mid-1960's
The best clues from this photo are the radio transmitting antennas in the background and the sign on the building that says, WARRIOR. There is a small city in Alabama named Warrior, and it seems that there was a radio station near Warrior in the 1950’s and 1960’s with call letters WVOK. There does not seem to be much information available about WVOK, but I did find that they had a transmitter location near Highway 11 and Cairo Avenue in rural Alabama. If one looks at the site today, there is still an antenna on the site, but the buildings are long gone. Older photos of this site (before 2024) show two antennas. The tree-line in the background is nearly identical, so I am reasonably certain this is the correction location of this photo.
The DS is a first nose wagon with the characteristic logo on the hood that only USA cars had (although the badges are usually on the left side of the hood). The wagon must therefore be a 1960-1962. The color appears to be Ecaille Blonde, AC 306, which would make it a 1960, first year for DS wagons. The American car in the background is from the mid-1960’s, so I am guessing that the photo is from the mid or late-1960’s.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, late-1970's
The first thing to notice about this photo is the Washington State license plate on the DS. I see a mid-1970’s Jeep Wagoneer on the left and so with a Jeep and a Citroën in one photo, I took a gamble and guessed that the photo might have been taken near Kolar’s Citroën / Jeep dealership in Seattle. I drove up there recently to check it out and sure enough, the photo was indeed snapped just outside Kolar’s, on 12th Avenue, looking south. You can read more about Kolar’s HERE.
The car is a 1969 ½ ID19B, in Bleu Andalou (AC 623). This was a common color for ID19’s in 1969 in the USA. But according to the amazing Dr. Danche's color charts, this color was only offered on DS21’s in Europe, not on ID19’s.
A longtime Citroën enthusiast in Seattle used to own a blue 1969 ½ ID19B in the late 1970’s. I recently asked him if this was his car and he said that it was not – but he actually knew who owned the car in the photo! It was a woman named Carolyn Tappan, whom he remembers was a school teacher in Seattle at the time.
Kolar’s went out of business in 1979 and the Jeep is from the mid-1970’s, so this photo must have been taken in the late 1970’s.