The Slower Road

One of our Carriage Association members in California sent me the following story and photos, which I thought y’all might enjoy as well. Thanks, Randy!

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“I work at a family-owned molding / tool shop near San Diego, and the owner is into collecting and driving early automobiles and motorcycles. Occasionally, one of these will wind up at the shop, where we will provide various maintenance or repairs. Recently, he rolled in with his 1915 Pierce-Arrow Limousine, which I had not seen before.”

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“Upon looking the car over, one particular item caught my attention. The body on this vehicle had been built by the C. P. Kimball & Co. of Chicago. I have seen a number of Brewster-body cars, but I had never seen a Kimball before.”

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“Those of us who are into carriage history are well aware that a number of carriage manufacturers continued on to build bodies for automobiles as the carriage industry dwindled down. Probably the most notable is Brewster building the bodies for Rolls Royce. In that era, you would order an automobile from one of the more high-end automobile manufacturers, and this would consist of a rolling chassis (engine, drive train, fenders, and cowl). It would then be sent off to a coach builder, who would construct the wooden body onto the chassis.

“Although Pierce-Arrow of Buffalo, New York, built their own bodies, this particular vehicle was a special order. In talking with my boss, he informed me that this particular vehicle was ordered by the Kimball family as their personal vehicle. He also mentioned that there are only two of these Limousine-bodied cars in existence (I’m not sure of the boundaries of that statement). The other one is also a 1915 Pierce-Arrow, and who do you think it belonged to? Why, the Vanderbilts of course. It’s always amazing how the people from the carriage era continue to come back to us.”