Looking Back in the REAR VIEW MIRROR
In 1955 AACA celebrated its 20th Anniversary and
Chesapeake Region experienced its first year of existence. The first Fall Meet
was held at the home of Activities Director Ed Hook in the Walbrook section of
Baltimore. The Fall Meet report is reprinted from the September 1990 Chesapeake
Bulletin.
Fall Meet September 25, 1955
by Bob Ruckman
(Originally published in the September 1990 Chesapeake Bulletin)
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In 1954 1 joined AACA and the National Capital Region, which at the time was the only region in the Baltimore-Washington area. I was an active member of the region, attending club events in my Model PB 1932 Plymouth four-door sedan. In May 1955, National Capital Region co-sponsored the Old Dominion Meet at Georgetown University, and I acted as one of the registrars for the event. Among those who came to the meet were Ed Hook in his 1915 Overland, Willard Prentice driving a 1924 Franklin (both from Baltimore), and Leonard Rhinehart of Havre de Grace in his 1909 Mitchell. They told us they had just organized a new region in the Baltimore area to be known as the Chesapeake Region. Ed Hook had been elected activities chairman of the new region, and he urged us to attend their events.
This new region planned its first fall meet for
September 25, 1955, and invited not only our National Capital Region but the
Gettysburg Region as well. The meet was to be held at the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Hook on Clifton Avenue in Baltimore 
.
Can you imagine having a yard in Baltimore big enough to hold the cars from
three regions? Well, the Hook's home was not the typical row house of old
Baltimore, but an individual home on spacious grounds in the Walbrook section in
West Baltimore. I attended the meet, and the plaque I received is the sixth one
on my plaque board. I later became a member of Chesapeake Region.
There were 42 cars at the meet. I took a photo at some distance from the cars in order to capture the flavor of the gathering. Consequently, it doesn't show any individual car very clearly. With a lot of help from the late Burgoyne Frank, however, I can now identify quite a few of the vehicles. (Too bad I didn't make a list of them at the time.) I'm glad I took the picture, however, as it is probably the best available visual record of this event and should be of considerable importance to the regional history.
The car in the foreground is the 1928 Maxwell
touring car owned by Harry and Rita Heiger. (Harry later became president of
Chesapeake Region.) Next is a Model T Ford coupe, owner unknown. The third car
in the row is my 1932 Plymouth 
.
Other cars in this row are not clear enough to identify.
In the row of cars on the right, the near car with just the radiator and the big brass headlamps showing is Ed Hook's 1906 Buick. I'm not sure who owned the next car, the all-black Model T Ford touring. Beyond that is Oakley Sumpter's white 1912 Ford Torpedo roadster. The next four cars are too hidden to recognize. Beyond these, Ed Hook's 1903 Overland is easily identified. This car, with serial number 49, was built in Terre Haute, Indiana, where the first Overlands were made. Ed later sold the car to a Terre Haute collector. Beyond the Overland is a large early touring car, possibly Leonard Rhinehart's 1909 Mitchell, and at the end of the line is Ed Hook's 1904 Gale. There were several other interesting cars present--like Ed Pamphilon's 1918 Stanley--but they don't show up in this view.
My Plymouth was the newest car at the meet and was not considered a genuine antique at the time. Compare this sight with most of today's meets at which most of the entries are cars of the 1940s, '50s, or '60s. The picture, of course, is 49 years old, so it is perhaps not surprising that the three "modern" cars parked along the street in the background would all be antiques now.