By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer
REGION – To those not familiar with the area, anyone driving along a certain stretch of U.S. Route 1 southwest of Boston may surmise it is a premiere destination for car shoppers. They would not be wrong. Cleverly dubbed the Auto Mile, the road is dotted with a wide variety of vehicle dealerships from Norwood to Westwood to Dedham and it really took off with the car buying mania in the 1950s and 1960s. Having convenient proximity to Boston made Route 1 the perfect spot for car sales. As traffic increased over time, so did the number of dealerships who planted roots.
Boch family a dominant presence
Some of those dealerships were owned by the popular Boch automotive family, whose dealership really boosted Route 1’s Auto Mile take off. Their car sales and service business was started by Andrew Boch, who first operated a gas station followed by purchasing a Nash Motors franchise in Norwood in 1945. Eventually, sons Ernie, Sr. (general manager) and Richard (service manager) operated the largest Nash and Rambler dealership in the U.S.
They later expanded their business into Boch Oldsmobile, Mitsubishi, New England Subaru and Toyota dealerships. Ernie Boch, Sr. famously coined the phrase “Come on down!” which is well noted in his vintage television ads and copyrighted by his son Ernie Boch, Jr.
Thanks to Ernie, Sr (also referred to as the sultan of local car dealers), Boch dealerships quickly became known for their state-of-the-art showrooms, play area for kids and enough periodicals to make a library blush. In a 1983 interview with the Boston Phoenix, Ernie, Sr admitted his commercials were not the most sophisticated. But they did serve its purpose since people are bound to be interested any time you smash things. Boch Sr. famously smashed the window of a car with a sticker price on it with a hammer in a television commercial to dramatize his price reductions.
Shift from Boston to the suburbs
Downtown Boston once had its own “Piano Row,” “Newspaper Row” and “Automobile Row.”
The founder of Boston area’s “original” Auto Mile, which was located in the now largely forgotten portion of Commonwealth and Brighton Avenues lying between the BU Bridge and Allston’s Union Square, was Malden native Alvan Tufts Fuller (1878-1958). A champion bicycle racer, Fuller believed the future of transport belonged to the motor vehicle.
In 1900, he persuaded the Packard Motor Company of Detroit to make him its exclusive dealer in the Boston area and a year later he added a Cadillac agency to his dealership. In 1920, there were at least a dozen dealerships on Commonwealth and Brighton Avenues. Less than a decade later, by 1929, there were 117 car dealerships, garages, and other auto-related businesses in the area.
However, after families began to move to the suburbs, particularly after World War II, car dealers followed them.
An enduring presence
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, the suburban Route 1 Auto Mile featured a crop of dealerships to include everything from a variety of brands made by domestic automakers to foreign imports and has built a solid reputation. One of the top early competitors included Jack Madden Ford. Potential buyers could find anything they needed or wanted on any given lot located on Route 1. Car dealerships began investing in larger, state-of-the-art showrooms, modern service centers, and high-tech sales facilities during the 1990s and 2000s.
The Auto Mile continues to be a go-to destination for car shoppers where many dealerships offer extensive warranties, budget-friendly financing and certified pre-owned programs. With the growth of electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid technology, and autonomous driving systems, several dealerships are adapting to the needs and desires of potential customers by expanding their inventories to include the latest in green technology. Today, Route 1’s Auto Mile continues to boast about 20 car dealerships catering to the desires of car buyers from the Boston area and beyond.
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