The South Weare Garage Was NH’s First Ford Dealership
Curiosity may have allegedly taken a few feline lives, but it also led to numerous stories for those with an inquiring mind and a need to fill column inches in the old newspaper world.
After driving by an old, abandoned gas station one day in Weare, New Hampshire, I thought there were cars sitting in the huge glass windows of what was also an auto showroom.
Returning one day, I discovered a dusty but vintage white Ford Mustang, an assortment of others tucked in the tiny recesses of the brick building. Turning the corner revealed a greatly weathered wooden barn, a tired old blue Continental restfully rusting away and an assortment of classic cars, and a fire truck that would be a great find under the dust, leaves, tools and detritus usually found in left-behind barns.
With no one to talk to, an attempt to document the finds was futile through the dirty glass with sun reflection washing out photos, but internet research proved it was the first Ford showroom, part of the So. Weare Garage that was owned or operated by Morris Grant. It also sold Gulf gasoline.
“Forgotten New Hampshire” on Facebook had some good history and pictures that are used here. According to a Jessica Morris post, “My great grandfather, Leon Grant and his brother Maurice Grant opened this and then my grandfather, Murray Wood and grandmother, Hazel Wood (Grant) ran it after it moved to Goffstown and until they sold the dealership to Malloy Ford, now Unique Ford (we retained the building in Goffstown) I have a lot of memorabilia from South Weare Garage.”
Another post says that Henry Ford was good friends with Mr. Grant. Both were known to go trout fishing in Weare and Ford had visited the garage. There are no known pictures of either fishing, but the page would welcome one or two if they existed.
It seems that someone, years ago, had stolen the Ford sign off the building in broad daylight! Yet another post claims to have the Ford sign and is interested in other memorabilia.
No one knows what had happened to that classic white showroom Mustang, nor the blue Lincoln that was outside for years and the memorabilia that must have resided inside.
One person posted that he got the 250 pound anvil at the auction at the garage and still uses it to this day at his blacksmith shop.
Many others had family or friends who worked and bought their vehicles there…in this tiny town that has lots of hills, RV campsites, a telephone company when you least expect to see one and a Dunks as the apparent anchor store in a smattering of convenience stores.
The store and pictures evoke memories of the “good old days” and what the Ford store stood for: a meeting place, an important business in the 1930s that was the first dealership above Boston, and an economic engine employing local citizens.
It was also a fishing spot for those testing out a pond behind the garage, though not the reported fishing spot where Henry Ford is said to have frequented.
Today, there’s zero signage of its current or former heritage until you turn the corner and see the garage openings in the lower brick building’s cellar that’s a home for an auto mechanic with an assortment of vehicles waiting for work or partially finished in the process. As the Google view photo shows, there’s no hint of any Ford history there on the corner of Route 114 and Short Street.
Some wish for the old store to be cleaned up and re-opened, but the Ford store that moved south to Goffstown has grown in size and is firmly entrenched along the ribbon of Route 114 houses and stores, and sits next to the Goffstown Police Department; it’s easy to find and indeed in a unique spot.
There’s scant details, but there’s no doubt that New Hampshire’s first Ford dealership started in Weare, N.H.
