It doesn’t look like much anymore, but this building at 11 Central Avenue was once Albany’s first auto mart. It was reportedly built in 1916 at a cost of $150,000, had giant showroom windows and automobiles displayed on every floor, and had what was said to be the largest elevator in Albany to lift those buggies. It was used as a common sales space by at least five different auto dealers, an arrangement that wasn’t uncommon in the early days of auto sales. Its most famous tenant, and I think the only one still surviving, was Armory Garage.
Armory Garage was founded in 1918 by Anthony Metzner at 27-29 Sherman Street, and was supposedly so named for its proximity to the Washington Avenue Armory. (It probably didn’t hurt for branding purposes that at that time the state’s big auto show was held at the Armory.) In an obituary for Anthony’s son Stanley, three years after this was originally posted, Stanley’s son Donald said, “They chose the Armory name because the garage was close to the landmark Washington Avenue Armory and it was easy for customers to find it by heading toward the tall red-brick turrets of the military training facility.” They sold Elcar automobiles by the Elkhart Carriage and Harness Manufacturing Company, which had been building “auto buggies” since 1908. They may have handled other brands as well. A Knick News article says they were in this building from 1936 to 1948, when they moved uptown. The Metzner family owned the building until 1959, when it was sold for use as a furniture store.
Thanks to the “Albany…The Way It Was” group on Facebook, we’ve got a clear picture of the building from when a dealer in Harry A. Lozier buggies occupied the premises:
Lozier was founded in Plattsburgh by a sewing machine and bicycle manufacturer, later manufactured in Detroit. They were the most expensive luxury cars made in the United States, and were out of business by 1915, which doesn’t jive well with the 1916 construction date of the building. But here’s the building, with Harry A. Lozier written on it, plain as day. Another article says the building was built in the 1930s, so there’s confusion for everyone.
It appears that Chandler motor cars were created by folks who left the Lozier company, and that Harry Lozier himself dealt Cleveland motor cars, so it’s likely that after he stopped building his own, Harry Lozier sold cars made by others here on Central Avenue.