Coachbult.com - Lowell Auto Body Co.



Lowell Auto Body Co. - 1910s-present - Lowell, Michigan

listed by Suman-Hrebley as an auto body builder in 1912.

Lowell Auto Body. 319 E Main St Lowell, MI (616) 897-6431

listed in 1930 directory as Lowell Auto Body & Repair Co. Miller & Wilcox prop.

Lowell is near Grand Rapids, Michigan

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John W. Lowell Wagon Co, 1870-90s probably unrelated as it was in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Lowell Cutter Co. 1889-1920 (may be the body-builder Suman-Hrebley cites) They did furnish a body for a home-built automobile made by Carl E. English in 1900.

In 1900, before mass production made cars commonly accessible, Carl E. English built his own automobile from a regular surrey built by the Lowell Cutter Company.

The homebuilt car had a frame made of 2 inch angle iron, 1/8 inch thick. Its wheels had 30 inch solid rubber tires. The two cylinders had a two inch bore and a six inch stroke. The gas was usually ignited with a hot tube for each cylinder because electric ignition was not dependable at the time. The use of the word "usually" doesn't give a sense of overwhelming confidence that the hot tube was much more dependable.

With no transmission, power was supplied to the wheels from a friction clutch and jack shaft by means of sprocket wheels and a chain. It went 10-12 miles per hour. In order to back up, the engine itself reversed direction.

The carriage didn't survive for long and caused numerous casualties. Horses ran away and buggies were wrecked. After Mr. English paid several repair bills to John Mills, he decided to abandon the use of Lowell's first horseless carriage.

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Lowell Cutter Co. 1889-1920 (may be the body-builder Suman-Hrebley cites)

Robt. J. Flanagan and Albertus H. Peckham, copartners, are the proprietors of the Lowell Cutter Factory. This occupies the site of Avery & Johnson's old planing mill that burned in 1867. The following year the mill was rebuilt by Avery & Johnson. The planing mill changed hands several times, until the Lowell Cutter Company was formed, purchased it and converted it to a wood-work cutter factory. The capacity of the factory at its best was 200 cutter bodies per day. In an unlucky moment this factory formed an alliance with a Chicago firm, the Cragin Cutter Factory, which took the bodies and running gears made here, and ironed, painted and finished them for market. Business was booming, and the combined company sold cutters to parties in Colorado whose paper went to protest; and the Lowell factory went to the wall, for the west end of the concern was owing the east end, with no means to pay. Flanagan & Peckham purchased the Lowell plant in February, 1889, and give employment to thirty men during the summer. They are adding machinery for manufacturing the iron braces and pieces necessary to fully iron the cutters manufactured by them. They are also making arrangements and placing machinery for the building of buggy boxes during the winter for spring trade.

1930s article:

FORMER LOWELL RESIDENT DIES IN HOLLYWOOD

Frank DAVEY-70
who rose from a $2.00 a day laborer in the plant of the Lowell Cutter Company to become a multi-millionaire real estate operator in Hollywood, is dead at his home there. Mr. Davey left Lowell to go to Detroit, where he was associated with the Fisher Body Company in its early years. About 12 years ago he went to Hollywood, where he had since lived. Surviving are the widow and two sons, William and Joseph.

For more information please read:

Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Car

Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Era

Beverly Rae Kimes - Packard: A History of the Motorcar and Company

Beverly Rae Kimes & Henry Austin Clark Jr. - Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942

Richard Burns Carson - The Olympian Cars

Raymond A. Katzell - The Splendid Stutz

Marc Ralston - Pierce Arrow

Brooks T. Brierley - There Is No Mistaking a Pierce Arrow

Brooks T. Brierley - Auburn, Reo, Franklin and Pierce-Arrow Versus Cadillac, Chrysler, Lincoln and Packard

Brooks T. Brierley - Magic Motors 1930

Nick Georgano - The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile: Coachbuilding