Photo by Jeff Baughan The outside of the Wharton Cadillac showroom on Seventh Street in Parkersburg as it is today. The company celebrated its 70th anniversary.

PARKERSBURG –There is a book sitting in the office of Dan Wharton Sr. at the Wharton Cadillac office on Seventh Street. The white letters on the black background simply state “Wharton Auto Group.”

Inside, on the first page of print, is the history of the group as told by founder Gilmer Wharton. From a meeting with former Parkersburg car dealer Harold Hupp in Frankfurt, Germany during World War II until this weekend, 70 years has passed. So, this weekend the Wharton Auto Group is marking its 70th anniversary Friday and Saturday by rolling out some of its notable Cadillacs at the dealership from years gone by.

Friday, from 2-6 p.m., and Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.,  are the hours scheduled for marking the anniversary. For lovers of vintage Cadillacs, it will be a time to appreciate the classic rides.

Dan Wharton Sr. and Dan Wharton Jr. have their individual offices in the Cadillac dealership lot. “We has hoped to make it to 70 years,” he said. “You don’t know anymore if you can keep the generational interest going that long.”

Dan Sr., as he is known around the dealership, was five when the Hupp-Wharton dealership was established in1946. “Dad and Harold Hupp started in a used car lot,” he said. “They bought what was the Crane Motor Company; that was the Cadillac dealership at the time. Parkersburg has been very good to us.”

Photo by Jeff Baughan Dan Wharton Jr., left, and Dan Wharton Sr., stand behind the tailfin of a Cadillac similar to the seat in their Cadillac showroom on Seventh Street in Parkersburg.

The Cadillac franchise was acquired in 1948 and offically became the Hupp & Wharton Cadillac Co. in 1949. In 1951, the duo purchased an Oldsmobile dealership along with purchasing land for buildings at 1225 7th Street. Hupp passed away in 1969 and the Whartons purchased the stock in the dealership to become sole owners. It offically became Wharton Cadillac/Oldsmobile in 1970. The Nissan franchise was added in 1998.

“Nissan has been the growth driven franchise,” Dan Jr. said. “We renovated a CVS store in 1999 and moved into there. Then in 2012, we renovated the Cadillac dealership. In 2013, we moved the Nissan franchise into the present building along Seventh Street.”

“When we started out early on as Wharton’s,” added Dan Sr., “just about anyone could tinker with a car. Now it is so technical with computers, people can’t do that anymore. With the OnStar, a can be diagnosed with a problem and be reported before a driver knows there is a problem. Then the owner gets a phone call and is told ‘you have a problem, Oh, really?’

“Computers have made today’s vehicles so much safer than before,” he added. “You had air bags in the steering wheels before and now there are airbags throughout the car. The braking systems are much better and you have the alternative cruise control  where it slows the vehicle down if it gets too close to another vehicle.

“The mechanic of the past is not the mechanic of the future,” he continued. “Cars are a technology driven item now. Technology has created many sophisticated items on a car now.”

Photo Provided Wharton Cadillac in 1960

Dan Jr. stated the biggest difference between today and the time he entered the car business “has been the internet. It has totally changed the shopping pattern for lots of customers. Now lots of them sit at home and look for their cars. They’ll look over their choices and will narrow it down. The days of visiting numerous car lots are dwindling. Inventories are on-line. Customers may not come in before they are ready to buy.”

Both agreed alternative fuel types of vehicles will continue to exist, although “with the price of gas being this low, it hurts the sales of  those types of vehicles,” Dan Sr. said. But for a couple of days people will get to see Cadillacs built, as Dan Sr. termed it , “made with enough metal to make a tank.”