A Family Mystery

I noticed recently that the Tire Kingdom store on East Colonial Street in Orlando was vacant, one of many empty commercial properties found in Central Florida these days. This particular building is of interest to me because it was built by my in-laws in the late sixties to house their business, Schmidt Motor Sales. In fact you can still see the hexagonal shapes where the seven letters of "SCHMIDT" were placed under the roof's support beams.

I'm told at one time they utilized buildings on three of the four corners of this intersection: one building housed automobile sales, (British imports Morris, MG, Austin and Austin-Healy), the building in the photograph housed motorcycle sales, (BMW and Triumph), and one other building was for service or parts. I also know that this location on Colonial was preceded by several others including a structure the Schmidts built on Fairbanks Avenue in Winter Park across from where PR's Mexican Restaurant is today. And I know that the in the early days of the business they sold Indian Motorcycles, and I have great images of my wife's grandfather in front of his shop with the wonderful Indian script logo on the front. But I know very little else.

When I ask for more information, my Mother-in-Law defers me to her brother who ran the business after her father. Her brother doesn't want to talk about the business because it brings up painful memories and I want to be respectful and accommodate his wish to leave it alone. But I really want to know more about their family business and its place in Central Florida History. Stay tuned...