Workers have uncovered a ghost on Main Street, while chipping away at the façade of the former credit union near Dallas Street. Not a scary sort of thing. More of a look into the past.
They are referred to as Ghost Signs – the painted ads on the side of a building or wall that promote something long gone. Sometimes they simply survive in faded style. Others are preserved by some circumstance or another. When the workers knocked the bricks loose, behind the facade was another wall. Painted on that now-exposed brick are the words PONTIAC – TEMPEST.
Even though Pontiac is a ghost itself these days, having been discontinued by GM in 2010, it isn’t so long-gone that we don’t remember it. Tempest, on the other hand, I haven’t a clue. There was a Pontiac Tempest introduced as a model in the 1960’s, and I suppose a dealer could paint the name on the building (although most dealers advertise their make, rather than individual car types).
Carl Lea was the Pontiac dealer on Main.
He grew up around the corner on Dallas Street, the son of Charles Lea, who had moved to Broken Arrow from Coweta and managed a hotel – could have been the Hotel Mains, which was at 202 West Dallas, and just down from their home. By 1930, Carl was working as a department manager at the lumberyard. Not too many years later he was selling cars at Main and Dallas, the Carl Lea Motor Company.
In the early fifties, Mr. Lea was at the controls of some heavier machinery and his business was listed as Carl Lea Earth Movers, at the same 311 Main Street address.
He may have still been selling cars, but there was stiff competition on that block of Main. Fred Boren sold Fords across the street, and the Strader-Foster Motor Company gave test drives from their showroom in that same stretch of businesses.
Mr. Lea isn’t on Main Street any longer, but he left a little reminder for us, that came to light on a crisp November morning in 2014.
Those kinds of ghosts don’t worry me one bit. Then – there was the call from Lori at the BA Historical Museum. I’d called to ask who the Pontiac dealer was. She confirmed my research about Carl Lea, and passed along a little extra information I hadn’t found.
“Before Carl Lea, it was McHuston Pontiac,” she said, before moving on to something else.
“Whoa,” I said. “McHuston is the name of my store.”
“Mac-Oosten,” she repeated, and then spelled it for me. “M-little-c, C-U-I-S-T-O-N.
“McQuiston,” I said.
“Except they pronounced it, Mc-Ooston.”
And that’s close enough to McHuston for me. A distant ghost-relation maybe, showing up from behind the brick façade. Now, that’s spooky!
Changes in the air, so come visit!
McHuston
Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!
