razed to make room
for Ford to expand
Inspection station
razed to make room
for Ford to expand
BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer
Down with the old, up with the new. The former state motor vehicle inspection station that was a landmark on Route 9 just south of Schanck Road in Freehold Township was torn down on July 13 to make way for the Freehold Ford dealership to expand.
The inspection station served hundreds of thousands of cars during the 60 years or so that it was in service. At times the lines of cars waiting to be inspected stretched behind the inspection station and back out to Schanck Road.
About five years ago the state built a new inspection station on Okerson Road, off Halls Mill Road near the Route 33 bypass, and closed the venerable Route 9 station.
The passing years took their toll on the building.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FREEHOLD FORD A heavy equipment operator makes quick work of the former motor vehicle inspection station on Route 9, Freehold Township, to make room for the planned expansion of Freehold Ford.
"It was an eyesore," said John Marotta, the general manager of Freehold Ford. "We own the property south of it. In fact, our property surrounds the inspection station. The small piece of property (on which the inspection station sat), about a quarter-acre, was of no value to anyone but us. We’ve been trying to buy it for approximately seven years and finally culminated the sale about four months ago."
Freehold Ford, owned by William Keith, president, plans to expand the business and provide more vehicle display and customer parking.
"We’re growing faster than the amount of property we have. Our intentions are to expand our business and make our facility more customer friendly with better entrance and exit," Marotta said.
He noted that when the inspection station opened in the late 1930s the access to it was on Route 9. As traffic on the highway increased, the access to the inspection station was rerouted off of Route 9 to Schanck Road and behind Freehold Ford.
Freehold Ford has been in business for 68 years. Dennis Boutote, fleet and sales manager, has worked for the dealership since 1962. Boutote said he remembers when Route 9 was a single-lane highway and he also remembers when the inspection station was built, around 1937.
"The Ford building was built at about the same time. Ross Cameron, who died in 1965, was the original owner and owned the property that both were on. Cameron built the inspection station building for the state and rented it to them," Boutote said.
According to Boutote, at some point Cameron sold the inspection state property to the state for $1.
Marotta said Freehold Ford executives decided to clean up the inspection station property as soon as they were able to buy it. Once plans for the expansion are finalized, the dealership will go from having 200 feet of highway frontage to having just under 1,000 feet of frontage on Route 9.