Auto Dealers
In 1907 W. J. Tambling began selling Ford Touring cars from his store on S. Franklin. In 1910, he merged his business with R. W. Stoneman and the company sold the E. M. F. touring car and the Flanders 20. Customers ordered their cars from a catalog. The manufacturers shipped the cars by rail to Chagrin Falls. Here they were unloaded and driven down Bell St. to N. Main St. The sales room was in Stoneman’s building located on Main St. between the river and the Stoneman Hardware Co. Today the site is the entrance to Riverside Park.
By 1926 there were 12 dealerships in Chagrin Falls selling Studebaker, Chrysler, Ford, Hudson, Chevrolet, Jewett, Nash, Oakland, Chandler, Dodge, Buick and Pontiac vehicles. From the 1920s to the 1940s, the autos were shipped by boat from the manufacturers to a terminal in Cleveland. The dealers picked up their vehicles at the dock and drove them to Chagrin.