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Community Corner

Downtown Edmonds Used Car Market, 1935

By the mid 1930s, pioneering motorists in Edmonds were ready to move up to more modern automobiles. This created a supply of used cars, and the place to buy them was the Edmonds Used Car Market on Main Street.

It all started when Allen Yost brought the first automobile to Edmonds.

His 1911 E-M-F 30 Roadster turned heads and set off Edmonds' love affair with the car that persists to this day (see Patch article ""). Everyone wanted an auto, and within a scant two years cars were pushing horses off the streets.

Oh yes, the streets.

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In 1910 they were dirt and mud, fine for horses and wagons, but not for self-powered vehicles. Early motorists were continually becoming mired in the mud, hopelessly spinning their wheels while passersby in horse-drawn wagons taunted them to "get a horse."

This led to a major drive to pave Edmonds' streets and set off a flurry of digging, grading and pouring concrete (see Patch article ""). By the end of the decade, the downtown core was transformed from mud to pavement, and horses were fast disappearing.

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By the mid-1930s, when the accompanying photo was taken, the first wave of Edmonds motorists were moving up to the latest models. Lusting after innovations such as heaters, electric starters, balloon tires for a smoother ride on paved roads, and of course more power, speed and flashy looks, they were fast leaving their original rides behind.

Many of the old clunkers ended up at the Edmonds Used Car Market on East Main Street, where they could be had for a fraction of the cost of a new vehicle. This secondary market allowed those who put off purchasing an automobile to join the motoring public, and further solidified the auto as the preferred and primary means of personal transportation in our community.

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