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.