Hermiston Herald

It’s still possible to see a bit of what Hermiston looked like in the days before World War II.

The Hermiston Herald from July 11, 1940 features a photograph and front page story about a new business preparing to celebrate its grand opening. Inside, there is a full page ad promoting the businesses, its services and some of the amenities of its new building. Scattered throughout the paper are several other ads from businesses welcoming the new shop to town and congratulating it on its grand opening.

The building is still located on Main Street at the corner of SE Third and E Main streets.

Although the building was added on to over the years, the exterior is unmistakable.

The following excerpt is from the July 11, 1940 issue of the Hermiston Herald:

The newest addition to Hermiston’s business house family will be formally adopted Saturday, July 13, when special activities are planned at the new home of the Hermiston Auto Co. Chevrolet sales and service are the outstanding features of the new concern, with Standard Oil products being used exclusively. The station, which is located at the corner of Main and Third streets, greatly adds to the appearance of that section of the city with its bright white paint visible for some distance.

The station has been built by Fred Huber of Pasco and will be in charge of C.L. Hodge of Hermiston. The personnel has been selected with factory-trained service men in charge of gasoline and oil sales. Wayne Lindner, who has been with the company for some time, will assist Mr. Hodge in the sales department.

An open house is planned for Saturday when visitors are invited to inspect the complete stock of parts, new equipment, display room and rest rooms for both men and women.

The structure itself is of most modern design with large plate windows facing Main street for display purposes.

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At the time the business opened, it looks like it was as much a gas station as a car dealership and garage, but the ad for Hermiston Auto Co. does list several used cars for sale. No prices are included, though.

But several websites say the sale price for a new 1940 Chevrolet Master 85 started at $659 and ranged up to $903. A Chevy Special DeLuxe ranged in price from $720 to $934.

That doesn’t sounds like much today, does it? But consider this was right after the Great Depression in the year right before the U.S. would be drawn into World War II with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But it still wasn’t a bad price, even when adjusted for inflation. The low-end model, with a sticker price of $659 would be the equivalent of $11,052.94 today. And the high-end DeLuxe model would cost $15,665.31 when adjusted for inflation to 2015 dollars.

Today, the lowest posted price for a new Chevrolet in Hermiston is a sale price of $17,046 for a 2015 Sonic hatchback, but it comes with several features not available in 1940, like AM/Stereo with a CD player, MP3 playback and Bluetooth audio streaming plus SiriusXM Satellite Radio and OnStar service, air conditioning and power windows.

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For much of the building’s history, it was home to Sherrell Chevrolet, which itself is celebrating 70 years in business this year. Sherrell Chevrolet moved to a new, larger location on Highway 395 on the north edge of Hermiston in November 2013.

Today, the old Chevy dealership building is home to Defining Details, which is a photo portrait studio and stationary and gift store at 296 E Main St.