Gooden family collection of Mount Vernon Motor Company photographs

The Mount Vernon Motor Company was one of several automotive businesses owned and operated by Benjamin Franklin Gooden (died 1944) in Baltimore circa 1907-1935. In 1907, the Mount Vernon Motor Company was located at 1118 Cathedral Street, with Gooden's Permanent Air Tight Patch business down the street at 1016 Cathedral Street. Later the Mount Vernon Motor Company moved to 629-631 North Howard Street circa 1930. Another Gooden family business in the 1920s and 1930s was a retail tire store and repair shop, Central Tire Service on North Howard Street between Centre and Monument Streets. Here tube patching were done using a repair cement developed by Gooden, which was sold nationally and in Europe. The Central Tire Service fell victim to the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression, closing in circa 1935 after prices dropped so fast that tires and accessories had to be sold at a loss.

Benjamin and his wife Elizabeth Gooden (died 1963) had four children: C. Freeman (born 1905), Elizabeth (born 1907), Lillian (born 1908), and Benjamin, Jr. The family lived at 2102 Allendale Road in West Baltimore. Lola Gooden was the sister of Benjamin, and Enos P. Gooden was his brother, originally a partner in the Mount Vernon Motor Company. The Gooden family would travel in summer to Kitts Hummock, a beach facing the Delaware Bay east of Dover, De. The family in their fully packed car made quite a spectacle along the way: two parents in front, four children in back, along with suitcases and the family's cat who wore a duster bonnet with two holes in the top for his ears.