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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Then and Now: Melcher Tire Co.

1939: Successful tire dealer Walter S. Melcher ran tire shops around Spokane like this one at 720 E. Sprague Ave., in the 1920s and 1930s. He sold name-brand tires but also retreaded tires for many years. Elmer Morlan and his brothers bought the business in 1943 and ran it until 2005. (Libby Collection/Eastern Washington Historical Society)
1939: Successful tire dealer Walter S. Melcher ran tire shops around Spokane like this one at 720 E. Sprague Ave., in the 1920s and 1930s. He sold name-brand tires but also retreaded tires for many years. Elmer Morlan and his brothers bought the business in 1943 and ran it until 2005. (Libby Collection/Eastern Washington Historical Society)

Retread tires, used since the early days of automobiles, don’t get the respect they deserve. A century ago, they were an easy choice for a car owner short on money.

Walter S. Melcher ran one of Spokane’s biggest tire dealerships in the 1920s and 1930s. Melcher-Mulligan Tire Co., later Melcher Tire Co., had multiple locations and also sold fuel. They sold Goodyear tires but also specialized in “balloon retreading” using molds that could replicate a Goodyear or Firestone tire on a worn-out “casing” at a price that was, according to his ads, “an agreeable surprise.”

During World War II, retreads were dubbed “Victory tires” because they used less rubber and other resources that were needed for the war effort.

Melcher’s top tire salesman, an energetic youth from Kansas named Charles “Elmer” Morlan, born in 1918, drove a truck all over Montana, Idaho and Washington, selling tires to service stations. Morlan, along with his two brothers, bought Melcher’s business in 1943 and continued wholesale and retail tire sales and making recapped tires. The Morlans also owned a water softener business and a farm near Worley. Morlan advertised on radio and in the newspaper under the moniker Elmer “More Miles” Morlan, saying “Elmer sez, take your car where the experts are.”

Tire industry experts blame the public perception of recapped tires as prone to failure and the low prices of new tires for dooming the retread industry. Most dealers don’t carry passenger car recaps anymore, though they’re still used regularly on large trucks and fleet vehicles.

Morlan ran the store at 720 E. Sprague Ave. for more than 60 years. A 2004 Spokesman-Review story described 87-year-old Morlan changing tires in a dusty shop that was “frozen in time” shortly before Morlan’s closed down and the building sold.

Melcher died in 1972. Morlan died in 2008.

– Jesse Tinsley