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1964 — present
The founding: Jack DeHaven Sr. founded DeHaven Chevrolet in 1964, in the middle of the postwar trade's best decade, and the house joined the city's Chevrolet succession in the years when Grieger's long run was ending: for a brief time DeHaven traded from Grieger's own ground at 1500 South Clinton, its jingle adjusted to the famous address, before the store's longer course carried it to Illinois Road.
The succession: Jack Sr. died in 1995 and his son, Jack Jr., took over — the ordinary second-generation handover the trade runs on. What happened next was not ordinary. Jack Jr. died unexpectedly in 2008, and the dealership passed to his widow, Jane DeHaven, a young mother with no auto industry experience, who was committed to continuing the family legacy. Near the time of her husband's death she brought on a partner, and the dealership was renamed Summit City Chevrolet. The very next year General Motors declared bankruptcy, and the number of franchised dealers in the country was cut significantly — the new owner holding a renamed store through the worst contraction the trade had known since the war years in this same leg.
The full circle: Jane DeHaven graduated from the National Automobile Dealers Association's Dealer Academy, became the dealership's sole owner in 2017, and did the thing that gives this house its shape in the record: she renamed it back. DeHaven Chevrolet again, at 5200 Illinois Road — what she called a full-circle moment. The house marked its sixtieth anniversary in 2024, still under its founder's name, under the tagline the family runs on: "One Family. One Focus. One Goal." Founded 1964; founder's son; founder's daughter-in-law, who saved it. Few houses in this section carry all three generations in their own line.
Sources:
- Business People, "One Family. One Focus. One Goal." (the Jane DeHaven profile: the 1964 founding, the deaths of 1995 and 2008, the Summit City years, the Dealer Academy, the 2017 sole ownership and renaming).
- Allen County Genealogical Society, Grieger Chevrolet page (the brief 1500 South Clinton tenancy and the jingle).
- The house's own anniversary record (the sixtieth anniversary, 1964–2024).