Cleveland All-Stars Tour June 12-14 2015

Welcome to the Cleveland All-Stars Homecoming Show and Tour for Cleveland area built vehicles. This is an optional tour you can do anytime during your stay, but designed specifically for the route from the event hotels to the cookout at the Templar factory site. It is meant to be old car friendly with no expressway areas, but in order to get to the Templar event on time, it is suggested that you leave the hotel by 2:00 PM.

The tour covers former sites of Cleveland auto manufacturers and their industry suppliers. Unfortunately many of these sites the tour will visit are just that --- sites. Many of these industrial complexes have become obsolete and are no longer standing. Several have been razed quite recently. Others cannot be included on this tour as they are not on the route to the Templar site. Their locations will be on another hand-out and can be visited later at your leisure. Although this tour merely scratches the surface of Cleveland’s rich industrial history, we hope you enjoy it and visit Cleveland again soon.

Tom Barrett, AACA Northern Ohio Chapter

Introduction

This is a story about automobile history. It is also a story about the rise and fall of the manufacturing base that made Cleveland an industrial powerhouse of nearly 1 million people by the middle of the last century. It includes buildings in which many large and small automobile factories and support industries were located. Some of those factories flourished during the first three decades of the 20th Century but during the 1930s, the Great Depression led to a failure of most automobile manufacturing in Cleveland. However, the Cleveland area continued to be a major supplier of parts to the automobile industry throughout the 20 th Century. During the 1940’s, this was a major factor in the war effort as many of these factories helped the US become the arsenal of democracy.

As we tour this area, keep in mind that this was not only a great center of industry. It was also the home for those people, many of them immigrants, who worked in those industries. We will be looking at some neighborhoods from which men and women could walk to work in the factories around them. Much of the housing was quite modest and has aged poorly. Back in the day these neighborhoods were the pride of the many that worked in those factories and helped make Cleveland great.

To understand why this area developed the way it did, we need to look first at the two major railroads, which passed through it: the New York Central on the north, and the Nickel Plate Railroad to the south. Collinwood, for example, was first developed as a railroad support area. The railroad yards on E. 152nd St. were among the largest in the country. They included a large roundhouse for engine maintenance and repair and other support facilities. The railroad at one time was the largest employer in Collinwood. The railroads came first, then other industries developed in the area around and between the two railroads.

Robert C. Dreifort, AACA Northern Ohio Chapter

Tour Instructions from hotels:

Turn right onto Chagrin Boulevard traveling west. Turn right onto Richmond Road (route 175) going north. Turn left onto Highland Road Turn left onto Euclid Avenue (US route 20)

At 20001 Euclid Ave. you will see a large building formerly occupied by the General Motors Fisher Body Division. Bodies for Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile were manufactured at this location from 1947 to 1970. From 1970 until 1993, this plant supplied upholstery and interior trim for General Motors cars.

Continue west on Euclid Avenue .

At E. 193 rd St. and Euclid was the site of Cleveland Tractor Company where they produced the “Cletrac” tractors. The company was started by Rollin White, son of Thomas White from the White Sewing Machine Company, in 1916 and built the Cletrac here until merging with Oliver in 1944.

The Rollin, a medium priced four- cylinder automobile was one of the first American autos to employ four-wheel brakes, and was built here from 1923 to 1925.

Continue west on Euclid Ave.

At 17325 Euclid at the corner of London Rd., the Cleveland, a division of Chandler Motor Car Company, was built here from 1919 to 1929. When Chandler was acquired by Hupp in 1929, the Hupmobile was manufactured here until 1931.

Continue west on Euclid Ave.

At 12217 Euclid, the Globe Four was produced from 1920 to 1922. An assembled car, Globe couldn’t survive the post WW I depression. At E. 120 th St. and Euclid, the Stearns (1900-1911) and Stearns-Knight (1911-1929) were produced on this site. The well- respected Stearns was one of the longest produced of the Cleveland manufacturers. The old factory was just razed in 2013. Today the property is the site of a solar collector farm, an example of new technology replacing the old.

Directly across the street is Lakeview Cemetery. This is the final resting place of many of Cleveland’s industrial elite, including John D. Rockefeller, Alexander Winton, and Frank Stearns. The cemetery includes hundreds of acres of shaded areas full of Cleveland history and is a great place to take a drive in an antique car. It is also the resting place of President James A. Garfield and the impressive Garfield Monument.

Continue west on Euclid Ave. under the railroad bridge.

On your left at 11610 Euclid is the present location of the Cleveland Institute of Art. This restored building was the site of the Ford Motor Co. assembly plant from 1914, the first year of Ford’s $5.00 a day wage scale. The building was enlarged in 1921. At its peak in 1925, this Cleveland facility turned out 225 Model T cars and trucks per day and employed 1,600 workers. By 1930, almost 34,000 Model A’s were produced here. Even the early Ford V-8’s were built here until 1933.

A few blocks past the Ford Plant, turn right onto Ford Drive.

Ford Dr. will end at East Blvd. Turn right onto East Blvd. 2

At 10825 East Blvd. is the Crawford Auto Aviation Collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society, the co-hosts of this show and tour. Visiting this museum is a must for all antique car enthusiasts. It contains a wonderful collection of early automotive and aviation pieces and many rare examples of Cleveland’s automotive heritage.

Continue on East Blvd., down the hill, right at the light and cross E. 105 th St. onto Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

You are now in Rockefeller Park. Along this drive you are in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, which are monuments to Cleveland’s diverse ethnic and immigrant groups.

Travel under two stone bridges, and exit to the left onto St. Clair Ave. Turn left heading west on St. Clair Ave.

On the right side of St. Clair between E. 79 th and E. 76 th was the site of White Motors. Only some of the buildings remain of what was recently a huge complex of factories. In 1905, White produced steam-powered autos, tour busses, and trucks here. By 1910, White introduced a gasoline-powered vehicle, and by 1911 the last steamer was built by White. Although the gasoline powered Whites were very expensive and sold well, the White Motor Company decided that the truck production was more profitable, and discontinued auto production by 1918. Large truck production continued at this site until White filed for bankruptcy in 1980, and ceased production here by 1981.

Proceed west on St. Clair Ave.

At E. 72 nd and St. Clair was a Ford Model T assembly facility. Model T’s were assembled from sections delivered by rail from 1911.

Look down E. 72 nd to your right. On the left side of E. 72 nd was the Columbia Axle Company, who made the popular two- speed axle. First used in the 1932 Auburn and popular with Lincolns, Mercury’s, and Fords.

Continue along St. Clair and turn left at West 9 th St.

Go two blocks on West 9 th and turn right at Superior Ave. and over the Detroit- Superior Bridge. You are now on Detroit Ave.

Continue west on Detroit Ave. and turn right onto Lake Ave. at Y intersection.

Continue west on Lake Ave. four blocks and turn right on West 80 th St.

The brick buildings to your right on W. 80 th St. were home to the Rubay Body Co. Leon Rubay came to Cleveland in 1915 to work for White Motors but left shortly after to establish his own company. He built high-quality automobile bodies here at 1318 W. 78 th St. The Leon Rubay Company built custom closed bodies for White, Lozier, Stearns, Chandler, Franklin, Duesenberg, Templar, Moon and others. In 1922 he announced the production of his own Leon Rubay Automobile but produced fewer than 75 units. In 1924, the plant was absorbed by Baker-Raulang Company body division and Rubay returned to France. From 1927 on Baker-Raulang produced thousands of Ford Model A bodies in this building.

Turn left onto Baker St. In about 500 feet, at 8000 Baker St. is the site of the Baker-Raulang Co. and the American Ball Bearing Co.

On the west side of the building note the clerestory windows on the roof. Now roofed over, these windows had skylights facing north to keep the building well lit before the days of efficient electric lighting.

Walter Baker sold his first electric car 1898. But Baker’s founding of the American Ball Bearing Company in 1895 got him started in the early automobile industry when he supplied ball bearings for electric motors and streetcars. Baker also developed the steering knuckle for automobile front wheels, the “full floating” rear axle, and the first rear axle bevel gear later adopted by the whole automotive industry. At one time axles for Cadillac, Packard, Lozier, Pierce-Arrow, Peerless, Ford, and Mercer were built here.

For many years, Baker was a close friend with Thomas Edison who thought enough of Baker’s product to choose a Baker Electric as his first car. Baker moved production to this site in 1906 and produce bearing products in the west building and autos of the recently demolished east building. After merger with Rauch & Lange in 1915, the company became known as Baker-Raulang. At this time, the company developed the Owen-Magnetic gas powered car with magnetic ignition and spiral bevel drive. Baker Material Handling Corporation was still making lift trucks here until the late 1980s.

Turn right onto West 83 rd . St. Take West 83 rd St. two blocks to Detroit Ave. Turn right onto Detroit St.

Note the large empty lot on the left at 9301 Detroit Ave. This was the site of the Ohio Blower and Body Company from 1919 to 1927. During this time they made closed car bodies for such makes as Gardner, Diana, Jordan, Moon, Owen- Magnetic, and Stearns. Their real moneymaker though, was a custom closed body design for the Ford Model T built under the trade name of “Master” and “Lindividual”. With Ford’s introduction of the Model T in 1927, their business failed by September 1927. The building has recently been demolished.

Bear slight left off Detroit Ave. onto Berea Rd. just before the railroad underpass.

As you wait to turn left onto Berea Road, look ahead over the railroad bridge at the five story brick building on the left side of Detroit Road. This is the site of the American Chickle Company, the world’s first chewing gum factory. In 1888 William White, no relation to the automotive Whites, made his fortune at this building making flavored chewing gum and then lost it due to his lavish spending ---- yachts, horses, women, fine art, etc. We’ve seen it before. Human nature has not changed. White died penniless in 1922.

At the top of the hill on the right side of Berea Rd. starting at about W. 104 th St., and going around the corner of Madison Ave. several blocks ahead, is the brick factory complex of the Winton Motor Carriage Company.

The first buildings went up in 1902 and contained all that was necessary to build a Winton. There were foundries, wood shops, sheet metal shops, machine shops ---- all integrated into this one property. There was even a 7/8-mile wooden plank test track that ran around the building about where the sidewalks are today. By 1903, Winton had produced 850 cars in his new facility that was used for Winton production until the end of 1924.

Turn right onto Madison Ave. at the first traffic light. The sign for Madison Ave. is missing.

As you wait for the light to change at the corner of Berea and Madison, you are at the site of what was probably once the epicenter of west side Cleveland’s auto industry. The large fenced in open area to your left was until recently the site of Parrish & Bingham Company founded in 1894. The company later became Midland-Ross Steel. It quickly became the largest producer of automotive frames and axel housings in the country. There were even blast furnaces to produce their own steel. They supplied steel frames to the industry until 1986. The buildings have recently been demolished.

Look to the back left side of that property. The old two story brick building with the row of upper windows was the Winton Engine Company at 2160 W. 106 th St. With the successful trials of engines Winton built for his own yacht; LaBelle, Cox & Steven Shipbuilders persuaded him to enter the large engine business in 1912. By 1913 Winton decided 4 to experiment with diesel engines. He is credited with making the first all American made diesel engines on this site. The diesel division continued on after Winton stopped building automobiles and in 1930 was purchased by General Motors. It became Cleveland Diesel and later General Motors Detroit Diesel and Electro-Motive Divisions.

Now, if the traffic light hasn’t changed yet, and you are still fascinated by the history of this corner, look straight ahead past the open field. The street running south is West 110 th St. One of the buildings just before the railroad tracks was the home of Guide Motor Lamp Manufacturing Company, the major supplier of auto lighting for most of the Detroit auto manufacturers. Remember the names Tilt-Ray and Multibeam? These were Guide products produced here until purchased by General Motors in 1928.

A few doors down at 2130 West 110 th St., Standard Products developed automotive window channels and weatherstrips that they made in Cleveland until 1995.

After you finally get through this intersection onto Madison Avenue, look to your left before you go under the railroad bridge. These buildings were the original home of Glidden Paint. It was here in 1947 the Glidden labs develop latex paint. They operated here until 1979.

Proceed on Madison Ave. under the railroad bridge and through the intersection of West 117 th St.

The large factory complex on your left was National Carbon, now GrafTech. They manufactured carbon products for the electric lighting and battery industry. This neighborhood along Madison Avenue in Lakewood is known as “Birdtown” as many of the streets are named after birds. This area was originally built as a factory town the late 19 th century for the many workers at National Carbon. Inhabited by European immigrants, almost every block had its own church to serve the various nationalities.

Turn left onto Halstead Ave. at light. Go two blocks down Halstead and turn right onto Athens Ave.

The large brick building on your left was originally the Templar Motor Car Company. Drive past the building and turn left into the parking lot. Park opposite Dock Area 4. Enter the building at “Central Stairs” and walk up to the third floor. For those not wanting to walk up the well-lit wide stairs, there is a freight elevator and arrangements can be made to ride it up to David Buehler’s Templar collection.

Dave will be our host tonight and tell us a bit about his collection of Templar autos and memorabilia. The display is in the same area these beautiful automobiles were originally assembled. Restrooms are on site.

That about ends this tour. Hope you enjoyed some of industrial Cleveland. Return to hotels via same route, or follow Dave Buehler’s instructions back via expressways.