Packard Motor Car Show at Crescent Sail Yacht Club (Click on photos to view original size.)

Motor City Packards members showed off their beautiful vintage cars at their annual show and barbecue held this year at Crescent Sail Yacht Club in Grosse Pointe Farms July 24. The cars ranged from a 1908 convertible touring sedan to more recent designs from the 1950s, among the last Packards built before the demise of the once dominant Packard Motor Company. The Detroit News reported on July 30 that a 1932 Packard once owned by Al Jolson brought $1.1 million at auction in Plymouth, Michigan, a Detroit suburb. I can only imagine what the 1908 Packard pictured above would bring. My favorite was the green 1934 convertible coupe with a rumble seat.

Crescent Sail Yacht Club's beautiful site was once the property of Henry B. Joy, President of Packard Motor Car Company. In 1908 Joy hired Albert Kahn, Detroit's most noted architect, to design a boat house and party room for his 100-foot motor yacht. The Joy mansion, Fair Acres, was across the street from the Joy boat house at 301 Lakeshore Drive.

In the 1930s. When Henry Joy no longer had a boat and no longer had use for the boat house he allowed Crescent Sail Yacht Club to move there from it's site on the Detroit River. And when Mr. Joy's widow died she deeded the property to Crescent Sail Club stipulating that the property be used as a sailing facility for "men of moderate means" and that the club not sell alcoholic beverages. Crescent prospered and gained national prominence as a one design dinghy racing club with strong Penguin, Lightning, Thistle and Snipe racing fleets.