1923 Mills Avenue: A History

As you can see 1923 Mills Avenue was built for Art Blum in 1934 but what did Art Blum do? What was the original purpose of this building?

One nicely romantic rumor told to me by some Norwood locals is that it had originally been a candy factory. A candy factory! How charming is that? Charming indeed but not the least bit true.





Somehow I found this envelope amid the rubble. Two truckloads of old paper, almost all of it mouse eaten and flooded but somehow this envelope survived. As you can see, 1923 Mills Avenue was a garage from the beginning and Art Blum presumably a mechanic.


Let's take a look at what the 1934 model year looked like:





Pretty damn classy.

I like to think of men pulling their Packards and Deusenbergs in and Mr. Blum welcoming them and opening up the hoods to take a look, gloves hanging out the back pocket of his coveralls. The coal furnace kept things comfortable in the winter but in the summer months the men and their cars would have to stick around for a while because you just can't hurry in that kind of heat. They'd appreciate the effort though and would stop by the next day with a pie or a batch of cookies from the wife.

"Thanks Art."