Swanberg and Scheefe ran a dealership on the west bank of the Mississippi. It was the golden age of the urban dealership – Lake street had a few, and Hennepin had car dealers on both sides of the river. But the dealerships went to the suburbs, for obvious reasons, and the small cramped old showrooms were either razed or abandoned.

I’m not sure why, but abandoned inner-city car dealerships seem to stay abandoned longer than any other type of building. It took years to take out the south Hennepin dealerships, and I recall this building standing empty for quite awhile as well. It’s gone now, and an impressive series of shops and condos has arisen on the site.