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c. 1920 – vacant by 1929
The town's first named auto-sales house was a Ford point, and it did not last the decade. The Commercial District nomination carries it in two passages, and both print, because they place it on adjacent lots and the nomination does not reconcile them. The Service Garage passage, for 101 West Center Street: "The building replaced the W. R. Hinkle Ford sales and service building that was constructed in about 1920 on this site. The building was quite large and filled most of the lot west to the alley… was vacant by 1929… Prior to the Ford garage the Hotel Grant was located on this site." The Modern Speed Wash passage, for 103 West Center Street, records of the c.1905 livery that it "was later replaced by a Ford auto sales and garage." Filed as a site-precision variance, not merged; its settler is the 1917 and 1929 Sanborn maps read at lot level. W. R. Hinkle is the only named dealer-principal found for the town's early auto trade — no Chevrolet or other second franchise point is named for North Liberty in any carrier reached, a tested negative whose settlers are the North Liberty News advertising run and the 1920s Polk gazetteers, which have not yet been read first-hand for this town. No carrier reached gives the Ford house's exact opening year or Hinkle's full name. The second garage building of the decade stands at 128 North Main: the present Masonic Hall was "originally constructed as an auto service garage in about 1925," its "capacity for auto storage was twelve automobiles." The counts that follow carry their own variance, printed whole: the nomination's commerce narrative counts "three automobile service stations or garages had been constructed by 1929" (a small filling station near 109 North Main among them); its Ford passage states "by 1940 four service garages and/or stations were in operation in the community"; and its summary of the 1940 telephone directory counts three service garages among the town's twenty-three Main Street businesses, named as Bare & Heim Service Station, Hazelbaker's Phillips 66 Service Station, and Poynter's Service Station. Three on Main Street against four in the community is the apparent reconciliation; the nomination itself does not reconcile the counts, and this section does not do it for her.