February 20, 2025  

Ricketts Garage “Auto Hire” Billhead, May 7, 1914

Ricketts' Garage "Auto Hire" Billhead, May 7, 1914

Ricketts’ Garage “Auto Hire” Billhead, May 7, 1914

Many early car dealerships grew out of existing garages. Reed Brothers Dodge evolved out of the Rockville Garage. Shown above is Ricketts’ Rockville Garage “Automobiles for Hire” and “New & Second Hand Cars for Sale” billhead receipt recently found on eBay. The receipt, dated May 7, 1914 is made out to W.W. Welsh (William Wallace Welsh) and is signed for by Lee Ricketts. Leonidas “Lee” Ricketts and sons, Raymond, Emory, and Thomas Alva (who went by “Alva”) ran the local Overland Agency at the Veirs Mill Road/Rockville Pike location from 1914-1915.

Original Rockville Garage building at the intersection of Veirs Mill Rd and Rockville Pike, 1916.

Origins of the Rockville Garage from The Montgomery County Sentinel. May 20, 1914:

Mr. Alva Ricketts has purchased the vacant lot opposite the fair grounds, in this town, from Mr. Benjamin Haney and will in the course of a few days erect upon it a garage, in which will be kept his autos for the accommodation of the traveling public.

The Overland Agency was short-lived: by July of 1915, Lewis Reed and brothers Robert L. and Griffith Warfield established Rockville Garage after acquiring the building from the Ricketts family. An employee of Rockville Garage in 1915, Lewis Reed purchased a one-third interest from the Warfield brothers in January 1916. Three years later, the Warfield’s conveyed the balance of the property and Lewis became sole owner. In August of 1919, Lewis Reed’s brother Edgar joined the business, and the name of the company was changed to Reed Brothers Dodge.

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About Reed Brothers

I am a co-owner of the former Reed Brothers Dodge in Rockville, Maryland. Lewis Reed, the founder of Reed Brothers Dodge was my grandfather. We were a family-owned and operated car dealership in Rockville for almost a century. I served in the United States Air Force for 30 years before retiring in the top enlisted grade of Chief Master Sergeant in July 2006. In 2016, I received the Arthur M. Wagman Award for Historic Preservation Communication from Peerless Rockville for documenting the history of Reed Brothers Dodge in both blog and book format. This distinguished honor recognizes outstanding achievement by writers, educators, and historians whose work has heightened public awareness of Rockville’s architectural and cultural heritage, growth and development.

4 responses to “Ricketts Garage “Auto Hire” Billhead, May 7, 1914”

  1. ptkernan's avatar
    ptkernan says :

    No idea there was a business at the site before Reed Brothers! Very cool.

    Reply
    • Reed Brothers's avatar
      Reed Brothers says :

      Hi Patrick,

      I knew about the business being there, but not how it got there. The biggest surprise to me is finding out they were only in business for about a year and a half. Anyway, it always makes me happy to learn new information. 🙂

      Best regards,
      Jeanne

      Reply
  2. linda jackson's avatar
    linda jackson says :

    Hi! I found that my great grandfather and his father also had a car dealership in Rockville-

    Montgomery Sentinel – August 1947
    Funeral Services for Wallace Englebert Ricketts, 84, retired Rockville Blacksmith and auto dealer, were held Sunday, August 10, at his home with burial in Rockville Union Cemetery. Mr. Ricketts died Friday after eight-day illiness. He was married in 1892 to the former Emma L. Mullican who died in 1899. In 1904 he married former Alphonia E. Poss who died in 1925. Mr. Ricketts is survived by a son Theodore A. Ricketts, assistant postmaster at Rockville; two daughters, Mrs. Estelle Ricketts Hartley and Miss Lena R. Ricketts; and two grandsons, Theodore A. Ricketts, Jr., and Ronald Lee Ricketts, all of Rockville. For more than 20 years Mr. Ricketts operated his own blacksmith and wheelwright shop. With his son, Theodore A. Ricketts, he founded Ricketts & Son, an automobile agency and garage in 1919. The father-son partnership handled the Graham-Paige and Jewett agencies until 1929 when Mr. Ricketts retired from business.

    Reply
    • Reed Brothers's avatar
      Reed Brothers says :

      Hi Linda,

      Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to share your family history–it’s very fascinating to me. I’m curious if there might be a connection between Ricketts & Son and Leonidas “Lee” Ricketts’ Rockville Garage. The timing is close. Lee ran his garage around 1914-1915, and Ricketts & Son opened just a few years later in 1919. It seems possible they were part of the same family, or maybe the second business was started because of the first.

      I did a little quick research but couldn’t find anything that clearly links Lee Ricketts and his sons to Wallace E. Ricketts and his son. But with the same last name, the same town, and such close dates it really makes you wonder. Do you happen to know anything that could help connect the dots?

      Best Regards,
      Jeanne

      Reply

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