2010 Concours d'Elegance

We were surprised with some free tickets to a lovely local event- the 2010 Dayton Concours d'Elegance! (Ahh, the perks of working for public television!) Now I know this is an old house blog, but I think this really fits with the theme of historic restoration, don't you?

I was really impressed with the bigness of the show. It was held at Carillon Park, a large historical park similar to Detroit's Greenfield Village. Carillon Park emphasizes the Dayton area's rich history of invention, exhibiting items from the Wright Brothers, the National Cash Register corporation, as well as old buildings and historic artifacts from around the Miami Valley. 1926 Foursquare is located about six blocks from Carillon Park.

We saw so many gorgeous cars it should have been hard to choose a favorite. But it wasn't, because the first car we saw was The Westcott!


You may recognize this 1920 model from our wedding photos. She's a beauty! And my goodness those big seats are comfortable! I love it. I cannot describe my excitement to see it. It actually belongs to the Frank Lloyd Wright Westcott House Foundation , the organization that performed the full historic renovation of the house in which we were married. Both the house and the car have been restored to look just like new! Except for the turn signals. I love the turn signals!

The old-timey cars were my favorite. Everybody likes the vintage sports cars, the pony cars, the muscle cars-- but as for me, I prefer a "classier" caliber of vehicle, something with some style! Here are some of the cars that caught my eye:





I suppose I should also mention that Dayton is home to America’s Packard Museum, the home of literally dozens of refurbished Packard cars. It is located in the historically preserved 1917 Citizens Motorcar Company building, a popular car dealership in its day. We saw so many gorgeous, lavishly, lovingly restored Packards at the Concours. We saw tons of cars from the 1930’s—cars that would have been puttering around Dayton when 1926 Foursquare was young, and that was really neat. But my favorite part of the day was wandering into Carillon Park’s Transportation Museum.


I loved this train car. It was so luxurious- the interior was all velvet seats, stained glass windows, beautiful lighting and amazing woodwork. Even the bathrooms were sparkly!



Aren’t those light fixtures exquisite? That’s my brand new husband standing in the aisle, by the way. He’s exquisite, too!


I thought the hat, handbag, and novel on the table was a nice touch, and when we exited the car, a coach was waiting!





We also saw a bus, an OLD streetcar (my favorite!) and an 1883 horse-drawn fire engine. Despite the heat, we had an amazing day. I had forgotten how fun Carillon Park can be! After the show, Jason and I had dinner at an Applebee’s. This is the wall next to the booth where we were seated:

I thought it was funny so I snapped a picture!

We’re still coming off the honeymoon high, (who knows, perhaps we never will!) so we haven’t done much work on the house lately. But we’ve really been enjoying living here, despite all of the renovations in progress. We are always picking up ideas, finding neat things, and making plans. Rummage sales, antique malls and thrift stores are always on our list of Saturday outings. You never know when you’re going to find the perfect piece of art, the perfect lamp, or the perfect chair for this corner or that one. It is so exciting to own an old house!