Versatile Vehicles

Versatile Vehicles. Pontiac's Early Carriage Industry. Horses did all the work in Pontiac's early days. , By 1850, several builders of "horse-drawn" vehicles , wagons and carriages , had workshops around Lawrence Street, using wood cut at lumbermills powered by the Clinton River. Carriage-makers soon spread throughout Pontiac and became a major industry by 1900 at a time when Michigan was the fourth-largest producing state. The Pontiac Buggy Co. was one of the biggest operations but many others were busy building and shipping wagons, carriages and sleighs too. The most successful of these businesses were primed to build "horseless" vehicles as Pontiac's remarkable auto industry was born at the start of the 20th Century., You Auto Know , Pontiac was an ideal carriage-making center due to its rail network, nearby lumber supply, mills, and closeness to Detroit. , , Pontiac Wagon and Carriage Makers , , From 1870 Street Directory , B.A. Rice , J. Adams , J. Crawford , Page and Pither , R.D. Scott , Wm. Parsons and Bros. , , From 1902 Street Directory , A.P. Bowman , Acme Vehicle Co. , C.V. Taylor Co. , Cresenct Carriage Co. , Dunlap Vehicle Co. , Hodges Vehicle Co. , Imperial Buggy Co. , O.J. Beaudette Co. , P.W. Hayward , Pontiac Body Co. , Pontiac Buggy Co. , Pontiac Phaeton Co. , Pontiac Spring and Wagon Works , Standard Vehicle Company , Union Buggy Co. , , Others , Baumgartner Body Works , Chapman and Johnson , Horace Gray , King Bros. , Mortimer Smith , S.J. Cloonan , Willard C. Palmer , Wolverine Carriage Company , , Upper left image caption: , The "Bike Surrey" in the Dunlap Vehicle Co. catalog, about 1900. It was described as having "lamps, rear seat fenders, rubber padded steps and special pattern dash." , Image courtesy of the Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society , , Left image caption: , Top: Some complex and varied horse-drawn vehicles are shown in front of Pontiac's central firs station in 1867. , Photo courtesy of the Pontiac Public Library. , , Bottom left image caption: , Carriages and wagons along Saginaw Street in downtown Pontiac in the late 1800s. , Photo courtesy of the Pontiac Public Library. , , Middle image captions: , Top: A high-end carriage in front of the Myrick-Palmer House on West Huron Street, about 1900. , Photo courtesy of Ron Gay. , Bottom: Hard-working horses and a wagon at the demolition site of the Congregational Church on the corner of Saginaw and Huron Streets, about 1900. , Photo courtesy of Ron Gay. , Right: The Union Buggy Co. was a carriage-maker on Saginaw Street. , Image courtesy of Ron Gay. , , Bottom image caption: , The Standard Vehicle Company on Osmun Street, near Woodward, was built in 1901 and in 2014 still stands abandoned. Like many carriage businesses, it closed after automobile manufacturing took over. , , Right image C. V. Taylor Co. workers with buggy parts before assembly, about 1900. , Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Brieer.