1929 Plymouth Model U
Serial No.: RD 368 Y
Engine: U61164 (4-cylinder)
Exterior Color: Tan with Black fenders and Orange Double Deep belt striping
Interior Color: Brown
Assembly Plant: Detroit, Michigan
Assembly Date: May 1929 (presumed)
Dealership: Barker Motor Company, Maplewood, Missouri (presumed)
Original Purchase Date: Unknown
Backstory
In 1928, Chrysler introduced a new low-priced brand, the “Chrysler-Plymouth.” By 1929, the brand was simply “Plymouth.” Chrysler reportedly chose the name because it evoked a popular brand of binder twine, possibly a harbinger of the repairs the cars would need (from my own experience with 1960s versions, “Duct Tape” would have been equally appropriate.). Plymouth was also the name of a small but mighty locomotive manufacturer, which former railroad man Walter P. Chrysler would have known. In any event, Chrysler marketeers mercifully found a more compelling hook for the brand: “that Pilgrim band who were the first American colonists.”
This Model U Two-Door Sedan rolled off the new Plymouth Lynch Road assembly line in Detroit and into the Great Depression. Legend (in the form of recollections of former owners) claims the car spent its first four score years in and around Maplewood, Missouri. If legend be truth, the sedan was sold at Barker Motor Co., the Chrysler dealership located at the corner of Manchester Avenue and South Big Bend Boulevard, on the newly-minted Route 66 (Plymouths were sold only through Chrysler dealerships in 1929). The car resided in Affton, Missouri for many years, and in the early 1980s was sold to a hobbyist in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield. He kept the car for almost 30 years, using it mostly for Sunday drives and tinkering with his Dad, who passed away around the time I purchased the car in late 2011.
Zenus Barker, the proprietor of Barker Motor Co., sold automobiles in Maplewood and nearby Webster Groves for 29 years, before switching to real estate when World War II halted new car sales in 1941. He died in 1953.
