This Automobile Dealership in AZ was Built to Look like a Ship

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From 1946 to 1981, this was the site of Wilson Motors, Inc., owned by C.J. "Blinky" Wilson. Wilson got his start in the automobile business at the Casa Grande Garage, on Sacaton Street, which was started by his father Hugh in 1912. After working with his father during the late 1920's and early 1930's, Wilson formed Pate and Wilson Motors in partnership with Irvin Pate, still at the Sacaton location. In 1935, they moved to a new building somewhere near Five Points. Later in the 1940's Wilson set out on his own to establish Wilson Motors at this location. Wilson served on the Casa Grande city council in 1933-35. According to two informants, an inmate at the Arizona State Prison in Florence designed the building, the arrangements for the work having been made by Art Brooks, a local businessman who also served as warden at the prison.

Building Description

The S.S. Blinky Building is located on a wedge-shaped lot with Highway 84 running directly in front of the property on the north side. It is also located just west of a major intersection with Pinal Avenue. A building designed for commerce, this auto showroom and dealership employs the Moderne style. The method of construction is concrete block with stucco. Significant features are the smooth white stucco wall finish, round windows, large horizontal band of display windows with steel frames, flat root, and stainless steel railings. Also significant is its use of a mimetic form to express the reference to its architectural vocabulary, specifically Streamline Moderne. The building does this through the use of ship imagery in form and is further emphasized with details such as an anchor and the verbiage "S.S. Blinky" on its "bow." The current condition of property is good, as the building is both well maintained and occupied. The historic integrity in terms of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association is strong; despite additions at the rear of the building, the original building appears to be unaltered from its original design. Originally designed to catch the attention, and therefore the business, of the passing motorist on the busy highway in front of it, the original feeling and association is successfully conveyed even today.

This commercial building is located on the major arterial route, Highway 84, which becomes Florence Boulevard. This route became a focus around which development in Casa Grande centered after the first twenty five years of its development, as development shifted away from the railroad the had defined development prior to this time. The setting is that of a major commercial strip, with the wide highway fronting properties, and buildings set back significantly from the road. This property is on a corner lot with the high density Pinal Avenue bordering the other side. On a wedge-shaped lot, the building is oriented to be seen most dramatically from the east, where the intersection of Highway 84 and Pinal Avenue occurs. From this vantage point the "bow" protrudes to highlight the ship-like form of the building as an enticement to the curious passerby. From the vantage point of Highway 84 itself, the front facade of the building "ship" floats in a sea of asphalt, as it is set back significantly from the front property line with the rear of the building set against the rear property line.

The overall shape of the plan is long and linear; it is in the shape of a boat with a curving "bow" shape at the end of its mostly rectangular plan. Two stories in height, the second story is not a full story. It is small and centered above the first floor, so that its mass protrudes through the massing of the first floor with the roof of the first floor creating an exterior terrace around it. The front facade is broken into four vertical bays through the use of window fenestration patterns and door placement. The building is constructed of concrete block, concrete, stucco, wood, metal, and asphalt. The roof shape is flat with parapets. The structural system is comprised of load bearing concrete block walls and wood framing on a concrete foundation.

Specific features of this building are its exterior second-story deck, windows and doors. The second story exterior deck has two doors opening onto it from the second story, which projects as a mass in the middle of the first story. It has parapet walls encompassing parts of the deck that curve down to deck level in places to reveal metal pipe railing. The building has large fixed single panes steel store display windows that rise from kick plate height to the height of the first floor interior ceiling. These display windows are arranged so that they seem to curve around the curved wall surface in a horizontal bank. They also have roll-down metal shutters attached to the wall above them. Five round, fixed windows at the other end of the front facade are arranged in two groupings of two and three to suggest interior cabins. There is also one round false window as a niche in the facade that continues this porthole theme to the left of these window groupings. There is a single glass and steel frame entry door to the right of the display windows. On the front facade, there is also a large freight door, and two wood plain five-panel doors with a fixed window forming the fifth panel. At the west end of the first floor facade is a metal roll down garage door. There are also two plain wood doors on the front facade of the second floor that open onto the deck.

Important decorative elements are elements associated with both the its Moderne style as well as ship imagery.

Indicative of its Moderne style are its long linear massing, rounded corners, round windows, stucco finish and steel railing. Indicative of its mimetic imagery as a ship are features such as a rooftop deck with a steel railing, a second floor cabin with a rooftop deck and crow's nest, a bow with attached anchor, an aerial on deck, the verbiage "S.S. Blinky Jr." painted on the two side facades that resemble the bow of a ship, and the fenestration pattern which utilizes the round windows to evoke portholes. The public area of the interior corresponds with the location of the large display windows at the front of the building and is a low-ceilinged showroom; information about the rest of interior is unavailable. There is one outbuilding on the property, a freestanding car shelter located to the front side of the building with metal posts, a concrete pad, and metal canopy. The first addition to the building was at a date approximated to be 1972; at this time an L-shaped addition was wrapped around the west side and rear of the building. A second addition to the rear was added at a later date. Both of these additions are non-descript, utilitarian additions of concrete block that disappear in contrast to the highly articulated form of the original building. A former carport to the rear, southwest end of the building was enclosed in 1996. There have also been some minor alterations to the original property. Some of the imagery associated with the streamlined Moderne imagery of a ship has been removed such as an element on the second floor roof designed to look like a smokestack. Also removed were some of the other manmade elements associated with the building's original function as an auto showroom and dealership; gas pumps and an overhead cover on the north side were removed. Additions to the west facing and rear side of the building have altered the appearance of the building from one approaching direction on the highway; however, this approach is the secondary approach and not the primary approach from which the building was intended to be viewed. One very minor alteration is the addition of modern metal security doors in front of each of the ground floor doors.

Southwest (2001)

West 2000 (2001)

Northeast 2000 (2001)