Bible School Parade and Some Photographic Sleuthing After the Break

I took a second look at the photo below after Susan Ahl suggested it might have been taken on Spruce instead of Park. I now see it couldn't possibly be Park because the lake is much closer to the road. I now think the photo was taken on Lakeshore, with the parade heading west.

Thanks to an anonymous commenter, who pointed out the truck leading the parade isn't just any truck, but the Pine Lake Fire Truck.

Here's a photo of a parade by the Bible School (no doubt at Pine Lake Baptist Church). The location is Park Drive on the western (downstream) side of the lake.

From the cars and the truck, I at first thought the photo was from the late 1940s. I based this on my first impression of the General Motors automobile directly behind the truck. It's a Chevy, for sure.

But in just what year was that Chevy made?

Warning: Investigative Internet Sleuthing After the break!


My first thought was to compare the front end to representative Chevrolets..

Here's a 1954 Chevy Bel-Air I once owned.

Compare the 1954 to the Chevy in the old photo. Here's a crop of the old photo:

The similarity is apparent--- but notice the differences in the grille (five vertical bars vs. three), and in the Chevrolet emblem. Note also the shape and position of the parking lights.

We know (or should know) that 1954 is the latest possible model, since in 1955 Chevrolets were radically redesigned:

Okay, so we know the photo was taken before mid-1954, when the 1955 models were released. But how much earlier?

Here's a '48 Chevy Fleet master:

The emblem looks close to a match, but the grille and parking lights are completely different.

But wait! Why are we wasting time on front ends? That thing has a split windshield!!! The 1954 doesn't!

Okay, so when did Detroit start using curved glass to make single-piece windshields?

1950?

Nope, that 1950 StyleLiner convertible has split glass.

How about 1952?

The front end of that Bel-Air looks a lot like my '54-- in fact, the entire car does-- but look at that windshield! No cigar.

1953?

Yes! That '53 Bel-Air is almost identical to my '54! Check out the parking lights and the teeth on that grille!

That means the Chevy in the old photo is either a 1953 or 1954 model.

But what's with the emblem? The car in the old photo has a wider emblem than the '53 above. Did different Chevy models have different badges in 1953? Happily, I found this website, with ads for all the Chevy models from 1953. All the models with the emblem visible show the wide style. Here's an ad for the '53 Bel-Air:

Notice the wide emblem.

I didn't find any '54 Chevys with the wide emblem on the website, so I'm pretty sure that purported '53 Bel-Air pictured above is actually a '54 model! But wait, here's the coupe de grace! There are five vertical teeth in the grill. The '53 models had only three. So yes, it's a 1954 in 1953 drag.

Dag, it's tricky being an internet sleuth!

Since the 1954 Chevys have the same emblem seen on my car...

.. I deduce the car in the old Pine Lake photo is a 1953 Chevrolet.

With additional investigation I could probably determine the model (probably, from the trim, a Bel-Air), but since no one is paying me for my amazing detective abilities, and since the relevant question here is the date of the photo, we can safely say this photo was taken some time after mid-1952, when the '53 models were released. The sedan in question (we know it's a sedan because of the vertical post between the side windows) looks new, so most most likely the photo was taken in 1953 or 1954.

A corroborating clue is the date of the scrapbook itself. A typed page pasted at the front suggests it was put together in 1953.

Here's a second picture of the parade:

And here's the Bible class itself: