(Photos) Abandoned Chicago area automobile dealerships

One day that beautiful new car--or well-detailed used vehicle--that you drove home to show you friends and family will end up in a junk yard.

And automobile dealerships meet the Grim Reaper too.

Here are a few that I found in the Chicago area.

Up the street there is a dealership with a similar sounding name, but Harlem Motor Sales at 105th and Harlem in Chicago Ridge has left the building.

"We buy cars--top dollar paid" and "Bank financing available."

Across the street is another abandoned operation, former Yellow Freight loading docks.

There is some irony with this photograph of the onetime Grantham Dodge Plymouth in downtown Gary, Indiana.

Gary was founded as a company town in all but name--US Steel was that company--in 1906 when what was then the world's largest corporation built a massive still mill, the Gary Works, which is still operating. Gary provided much of the steel for Detroit's automobile assembly plants in the Motor City's glory years. As Detroit sputtered--because of the rise of import cars and political malfeasance--do did Gary. But parts of Detroit are enjoying a resurgence. Gary remains in a coma.

That's a ghost sign--a painted wall advertising a defunct business--in this case Bea's Auto Sales. This sign was still readable on 48th and Halsted in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood.

That's a car shack, which used to be very common on used car lots. This one is for Ben's Auto Sales at 101st Place and Michigan in Chicago's Roseland neighborhood. I don't know if this was the same Ben's that was a regular advertiser on Chicago pro wresting broadcasts.

Nature is eating away at the parking lot, just as it is with Harlem Motor Sales.

Landmark Ford--it was adjacent to the Leaning Tower of Pisa replica in Niles--wasn't able to survive the Great Recession. It was razed a few years ago to make way for a Costco gas station.

Related post:

Office of US Rep. Danny K. Davis and three murders at Fohrman Motors