The garage that W. Raymond Black built in 1928 was an architectural gem, and the only building of its kind in Carlisle. It would stand for 76 years. Situated at Hanover and Willow streets, the newspaper reported that the cost of the new building was $10,000 and ‘in architecture it will far surpass any other garage in this section, and its appointments will be strictly modern.”1 Raymond Bobb was the architect, and B. H. Snyder was the contractor. The building was 110 feet by 60 feet. The front of the building, facing Hanover Street, was constructed of buff brick with Indiana limestone trimmings. Four entrances faced Hanover Street, and one entrance faced Willow Street. It had the capacity to store twenty cars, four service pits, and maintenance racks.2
W. Raymond Black was born in Wormleysburg, Cumberland County in 1901. The family moved to Carlisle where his father, Willard R. Black, operated Carlisle Garage and Machine Shop on North Street.3 Raymond worked at his father’s shop and graduated from Carlisle High school in 1919. After leaving High school he worked as a service manager for an automobile agency in Wheeling, West Virginia and then as a traveling road mechanic for the Oldsmobile Motor Company. At the time of his marriage to Katharine E. Henry on December 30, 1922, he was in the auto business in Toledo, Ohio. They moved back to Carlisle, and in July 1924, Raymond opened Black’s Auto Repair Shop in the rear of George Bushman’s gasoline station at Diffley’s Point on North Hanover Street.4
He opened his new shop in 1928, the year before the Wall Street crash. The business made it through the depression, and in May 1939 the business became the official dealer of Cadillac-LaSalle automobiles for Carlisle and the vicinity. Operating as W. Raymond Black, Inc., they were the authorized Cadillac dealer, in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Yearly advertisements in the Carlisle Sentinel newspaper showed the latest models.
It was big news when Raymond sold his business property to the Dauphin Oil Company in July 1966. A modern service station was to be added as well as some remodeling of the building. Black intended to carry on the auto repair business in a rear building. He emphasized “that he would continue to represent Cadillac in Carlisle and there would be no break in service to his customers.”5
Raymond died on April 7, 1988, and is buried in Westminster Memorial Gardens in North Middleton Township. His building gave pleasure to those who admired its architecture until it was demolished in 2004. A Rite Aid Pharmacy was built in its place. Rite Aid is now vacant, either waiting for a new tenant or for the wrecking ball.
