| Governor French Academy leaders were looking for an excuse to buy the former Oliver C. Joseph garage at the rear of their Belleville school. |
| And members of a local car club were looking for a place to store their antique vehicles. |
| So the school, the owners of the former car lot and the members of the car club struck a business deal they said will benefit everyone involved -- as well as the city. |
| "Obviously, we were very concerned with what would potentially go into that building because of its location," Governor French Academy spokesman Paul Seibert said. "When we found out the car club guys were looking for a place to keep their vehicles, it gave us just the excuse we needed to buy it." |
| Seibert said Governor French Academy plans to rent space to members of the Automobile Collectors Club of Greater Belleville for $50 a month to store their classic and antique vehicles in the old garage. You have to be a member of the car club to store your vehicle at the site, which costs another $12 a year. |
| "We hope to create an attraction downtown with the old showroom that is attached to the garage, in addition to providing a safe storage area for the cars," Seibert said of the exhibit called Showcars of Belleville. "We'll be able to put several cars in there that people will be able to walk up and see." |
| Currently, a pair of Plymouth Barracudas -- one a 1967 convertible and the other a 1972 model; a 1957 Volkswagen Beetle; a 1929 Model A Ford; and a 1960 Ford Starliner are in the showroom where the Oliver C. Joseph dealership once sold MG and Triumph sports cars. |
| Car club member Gary Meyer said the autos in the showroom will rotate on a monthly basis so there will always be something different for visitors to see. |
| Automobile memorabilia will be added to the display, Seibert said. He plans to put an old time gas pump in the showroom and historic car signs may be added throughout the display. The Oliver C. Joseph signs on the outside and inside of the building also will remain, Seibert said. In the garage, the parts counter area is being considered as a meeting room for the car club. |
| In addition to the collector car-related business, Seibert said it was important to save the arch-roofed garaged for architectural and historical reasons. |
| Built in 1949, according to Oliver C. Joseph General Manager Brad Joseph, the garage has what is called a Lamella truss roof, which is basically a diamond-shaped pattern of roof supports that allows the roof to hold a great deal of weight without support posts cutting into the floor space. |
| "It's a really neat design that you couldn't reproduce today because it is so labor intensive," Joseph said. "There are only two of these buildings in the St. Louis area today. The other is a barn in Ladue, Mo." |
| Joseph said the old St. Louis Arena, which was known for a while as the Checkerdome, where the St. Louis Blues National Hockey League team used to play, had a Lamella truss roof. |
| Joseph said the showroom was built onto the garage because his father, Oliver D. Joseph, decided to sell the trendy British sports cars in the late 1940s and dealership founder Oliver C. Joseph refused to allow them to be parked next to the Chryslers and Dodges that were the dealerships bread and butter. |
| While the Oliver C. Joseph dealership sold the site to Governor French Academy because it moved to a new location on Illinois 15 last summer, it will still have a presence. Oliver D. Joseph is a member of the car club that will use the dealership's former garage. So maybe his car will once again be on the showroom floor. |
| For Information on Showcars, contact Governor French Academy at 618-233-7542 |
| © 2007 Belleville News-Democrat and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. |