The Gerde Auto Co. was located at 1112 East Lake Street, Minneapolis. Not much is yet known about this early dealership. A notice (below) from a contractor’s publication indicates plans for a new were ready to bid out in August, 1917.

From The American Contractor, August 18, 1917, p. 31

Courtesy of Bob Hansen

The Gerde Auto Company received some notoriety in an article because of its “small, cluttered nature”. It was also pictured on the cover of the scholarly journal.

“The repair shop of the Gerde Auto Company, a Minneapolis Ford dealer, illustrates the small, cluttered nature of most repair shops in the 1910s.”

The Failure of Fordism, by Stephen McIntyre, Technology and Culture, the International Quarterly of the Society of the History of Technology. April 2000. The picture of the Gerde Auto Company used on the cover (below) is from the collections of the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, N.833.8420, and is dated 1916.