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Weber Implement Company was founded by
George Weber in 1902 on Main Street which is about where the Gateway Arch is
now. The company supplied equipment such as plows, thrashers, sawmill
equipment, wagons, buggies, and steam engines. It’s sales were to farmers in
Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas. The warehouse for the company was in East
St. Louis, Illinois where the goods came in by railroad. The steam engines
that did the work on farms were fueled with anything that would burn
including coal, wood, and corn cobs. Business was very good from the outset,
and three years later the firm moved to expand facilities on the southwest
corner of 19th and Locust Streets. This was a short walk for farmers from the
train depot at Union Station. In those days, everyone traveled by train and
all shipping was by rail or packet river boat. In 1908, the firm added automobiles to it’s
lines as buggies and wagons were phasing out.
The name was changed to Weber Implement and Automobile Company. At that time, there were some 300 different
manufacturers and Locust Street was to become known as “automobile row” or
the main area to shop for a car. Some
of the manufactures were the Hupp Motor Company, Mitchell Motor, Moon,
Gardner, Doris, Saxon, Lozier, Maxwell and Chalmers, Lexington, F. Dorris,
and Gray and Star. The Weber firm
became a distributor for Hupp Motor Co. and appointed dealers for the
Huppmobile over a 150 mile radius.
Many of these new dealerships were service stations that took on the
automobile. George Weber Jr. joined
his father at the firm during vacations from school and then became full time
in 1925. In the early days of auto
sales you had to teach the prospective customer to drive before you sold the
car. The Webers sold and distributed
the cars, provided parts for repairs and warranty guaranties. They still kept the farm implement business
in order to service and repair what had been sold earlier. Locust Street between 18th and Channing
remained as “automobile row” until 1935.
The Weber firm was one of the first to accept “trade-ins” when someone
wanted a newer model. In 1930, the Chrysler Corporation appointed
Weber as distributor for Plymouth and DeSoto automobiles and in 1938, the
firm moved to 4035 Lindell Blvd. at the corner of Sara Street. During World War II, all automobile
production stopped, and gasoline rationing was imposed. Some owners stored their automobiles. New cars were put in warehouses and only
sold on a priority basis to those who had a U.S. Government certificate
stating that their automobile would be “essential to the war effort”. These soon ran out and business was
slow. Weber continued to service automobiles
and converted the showroom into a die casting plant for airplane parts. Curtiss Wright in St. Louis, North American
in Kansas City, and Boeing in Wichita Kansas were all customers. Auto production resumed in late 1945 and in
1946 Weber was back selling cars and phased out the airplane parts. In 1952, General Motors awarded the firm a
Chevrolet franchise. The name was
changed to Weber Chevrolet Company. George Weber III, who had worked during
school vacations, joined his father full time in 1963. Business flourished and the firm moved to a
12 acre site on Olive Boulevard at Interstate 270 in 1969. This firm quickly became the largest seller
of Chevrolet cars and trucks in the state of Missouri and one of the largest
in the nation. In 1989, George Weber Chevrolet Company was
added in Columbia, Illinois. It was
relocated to a new 15 acre site beside Interstate 255 in 1992. In 1993, Weber Granite City Chevrolet was
added on Illinois Rt. 3 just south of Interstate 270. In 2005 Weber Chevrolet Waterloo was added
12 miles south of Interstate 270 in
Waterloo, Illinois. These four locations make it convenient for anyone in the
St. Louis metropolitan area to visit a Weber location. In 1994, George Weber IV joined his father
at the firm which is still growing in terms of sales and service at all four
locations. In their 106th year of business, 2008, the
Webers and all of the 332 employees wish to thank the people of St. Louis for
their loyalty and business over the past century. Our thanks go out to everyone whom we have
worked with on this 100 year journey.
And now we embark on the second 100 years. |
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Our 100
Year Journey |
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Weber Chevrolet
weberchevrolet.com |