The Jordan house: from Ramblers to a group, on one Jefferson Boulevard corner

1949 — present · 609 East Jefferson Boulevard throughout

The founder: Jordan H. Kapson, born in 1926, started in the car business in 1946 selling Nash Ramblers, by the trade press's memorial account of him, and founded his own house in 1949, by the industry report of its sale — the year the 1949 canvass first lists a dealer corporation at 609 East Jefferson Boulevard. That first listing is under another name: Medow Ben Corp. Ben Medow was South Bend's Dodge-Plymouth dealer — his Ben Medow Inc stood at 222 North Lafayette Boulevard with the Dodge and Plymouth car and truck lines, a used lot at 619 South Michigan, himself president and Rose Medow secretary — and the Jefferson Boulevard corporation was his Mishawaka Dodge-Plymouth store. The corner's first documented form, in other words, is one river-city dealer's second store; its second form joins the two names.

Jordan Motors: The 1956 canvass shows the joined house whole: Jordan Motors Inc, Dodge and Plymouth motor cars and Dodge "Job-Rated" Trucks, at 609 East Jefferson Boulevard, telephone BLackburn 5-9628 — Jordan H. Kapson president, Ben Medow vice-president, Mrs. Betty Kapson secretary-treasurer, Henry Case business manager, Herman Schmitt new-car manager, Art Samson used-car manager. A founder in his late twenties, the older Dodge dealer as his vice-president, his wife keeping the corporation's books: the listing is the complete portrait of a postwar family franchise house, and the succession it records — a South Bend dealer's Mishawaka store becoming a Mishawaka family's house with the founder of the first store retained as its second officer — is documented nowhere but in these two canvasses, which is why it is printed at this length. The same address carries a Jordan Collision Center today whose house account claims seventy-one years in operation at the corner, consistent with the 1949 founding the directories bracket.

Ford City, and the group: By the 1963 canvass the house had changed makes and doubled its name: Jordan Ford City, autos, at 609 East Jefferson, Jordan H. Kapson president and Mrs. Bette Kapson secretary-treasurer, holds the city's Ford point — the succession traced in the Ford entry above — and the Dodge-Plymouth lines are gone from the address. Toyota joined the house in the years after, on a date the sources read do not fix. Jordan Kapson's documented civic course runs beside the business one: in October 2000 the University of Notre Dame announced his gift of one million dollars to endow a professorship in Jewish studies. He died in 2006, chairman of what the trade press by then styled the Jordan Automotive Network — Ford, Toyota, Scion and Volvo — with his son Craig Kapson as president.

The house, in one line: Founded in 1949 by Jordan H. Kapson at 609 East Jefferson Boulevard, on ground first listed that year as Ben Medow's Mishawaka Dodge-Plymouth store, with Medow retained as the new house's vice-president; the city's Ford point by 1963 and a Ford and Toyota group under the second generation thereafter; sold by the family to RFJ Auto Partners in 2016, and RFJ acquired by Sonic Automotive on 6 December 2021 — Jordan Ford and Jordan Toyota sell in Mishawaka today under the founder's name.

Sources:

1. Polk's South Bend and Mishawaka directories, 1949, 1956 and 1963 (read first-hand) — the Medow Ben Corp listing at 609 E. Jefferson Blvd. and the Ben Medow Inc South Bend entry (Dodge and Plymouth cars and trucks, 222 N. Lafayette Blvd., used lot 619 S. Michigan) in 1949; the full Jordan Motors Inc officer listing of 1956; the Jordan Ford City entry of 1963.
2. The Banks Report, 31 August 2016 (automotive buy-sell trade press) — RFJ Auto Partners' closing on the Jordan Automotive Group, its Ford and Toyota stores at Mishawaka; the group "started in 1949 by Jordan Kapson"; Craig Kapson's decision to sell.
3. Automotive Fleet, in-memoriam notice, 7 March 2006 (trade press) — Jordan Kapson (1926–2006), chairman of Jordan Automotive Network (Ford, Toyota, Scion, Volvo); in the car business from 1946 selling Nash Ramblers; his son Craig, president.
4. Notre Dame News, 8 October 2000 (the university's own release) — Jordan H. Kapson's gift of $1 million endowing a professorship in Jewish studies.
5. Sonic Automotive Inc., Form 8-K, December 2021 (SEC filing) — the acquisition of RFJ Auto Partners completed 6 December 2021.
6. Jordan Collision Center, the house's own account — seventy-one years in operation at 609 E. Jefferson Blvd.; printed as a house claim, consistent with the 1949 founding.