Walking Tour: Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites - by Mike Harrold Industrial Survey Volunteer - Amesbury ...
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Walking Tour: Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites by Mike Harrold Industrial Survey Volunteer Amesbury Carriage Museum Amesbury, MA July 1, 2018
7/1/2018
Amesbury Carriage Museum
Walking Tour of the Millyard & Water St. Auto Body Manufacturing Sites
Carriagetown Automobile Show - Sunday, July 1, 2018
The Amesbury Millyard was the site of iron works, grist and saw mills, and textile mills since
about 1640, powered by 75 feet of drop in the Powow River over about an eighth of a mile.
Brick buildings along the Powow were originally textile mills, large and highly industrialized for
their time. They had large capitalizations financed by wealthy Boston investors, and after
textile decline the buildings found other uses, including auto body manufacture.
From the early 1850s, Amesbury developed a carriage making industry. Factories were away
from the river, mostly without any power at all. Amesbury became a major carriage city in the
niche of high-quality craft-built vehicles. Factories were of only moderate size, capitalization
(local), and industrial sophistication, even for the carriage industry. They used rationalized
semi-industrial methods for efficient production. They never recovered from the depression of
the 1890s, losing business to large and highly industrialized factories in the mid-west that
were making low-cost consumer commodity carriages.
After 1900, carriage factories were rapidly electrified and converted to production of auto
bodies. Once again, moderately sized factories carved out a boutique niche of upper end
bodies for Buick, Franklin, Stanley Steamer, Cadillac, Hudson, and many others. That came
to a rapid end with the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Many of Amesbury’s auto
body customers were then consolidating operations and vertically integrating body making
into their vastly larger, highly industrialized, and closely coupled mid-western plants. That
trend was occurring, even without the Depression, so that the end was inevitable.
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 1
7/1/2018
1920 Cadillac Type 59 GWM by Hollander & Morrill
made in Mill #2, and seen here in the Upper Millyard – 1922 Mass Plate
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 2
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Tour of Existing Auto Body Related Buildings
in the area of the Millyard & Water Street
8 Elm St. Complex
85
79
Virtual tour location in
77
1 3 lower Millyard
Mill 14 & 14½ Mill 11 7
2
35 Water St.
Mill 2
Bartley Machine
Water St.
Carriage Museum Tent Mill 17
Mill 4
in Upper Millyard 4 29 Water St.
5
6
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 3
7/1/2018
Auto Body Related Buildings – Millyard & Water St.
Amesbury focused on high-end auto bodies, especially elaborate enclosed cars. There were 20-25 firms in
the business for much of the 1905-1930 era, many having extended relationships with specific customers.
That could be beneficial for dependable sales, but become perilous when main customers encountered
financial difficulties and/or failure. The two largest were Walker Body Company, which began as Walker
Wells, and Biddle & Smart, which already had large Water St. facilities when the automobile age began. In
1918, Walker Body Co. received substantial investment from H. H Franklin Car Co. of Syracuse, New York.
There was a geographic concentration of companies. Biddle & Smart dominated the Water St. area. Walker
Body Co. was in the Railroad Avenue area, used most buildings remaining now on Carriage Hill, and
occupied what is now the large apartment complex on Oak Street. Pettingell and Currier Cameron & Co.
occupied most of the Elm Street complex. Surviving the Great Depression, The Bailey Co. occupied
numerous local buildings during mid-20th century.
Mill 14 & 14½ Mill 11
1 Built 1863 for textile milling 3 Built in 1870 for textile milling
Occupied in the mid-1920s by The Bailey Co., making felt lined Home to an auto painting contractor who was seemingly
channels for sliding door-windows successor to a previous such company named Durling-Price
Bailey, S. R. & Co. felt lined window glass chnnels 1925 1932 High St. Auto Painting garage 1st flr. - auto painting 2nd flr. 1925 1938
Bailey Company Inc. (The) felt lined window glass chnnels 1932 ca. 1970
Bailey, S. R. & Co. felt lined window glass chnnels 1925 1932
Bailey Company Inc. (The) felt lined window glass chnnels 1932 ca. 1970
Mill 2
2 Mill 17
Built in 1825 for textile milling 4 Built in 1871 as textile company boiler house
Occupied by several prestige auto body companies, and finally by
The first two floors were immediately occupied by Charles Wing, a
The Bailey Co.
large purveyor of hardware for carriage makers. Wing changed
Hollander, George H. & Morrill, Gayden Cadillac, Maxwell-Briscoe, Pierce-Arrow 1918 1925 with the times to providing similar hardware to auto body
Biddle, Smart & Co. Mercer Packard, Peereless, Hudson, Rolls-Royce 1925 1930 manufacturers. The building was finally used by The Bailey Co.
Bailey Company Inc. (The) felt lined window chnnels & mouldings 1939 ca. 1970
Bailey Company Inc. (The) felt lined window chnnels & mouldings 1937 ca. 1970
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 47/1/2018
Auto Body Related Buildings – Water & Elm Sts.
77 Elm St.
Mill 4 8
5 Built in 1854 for textile milling
Built in 1884 as commercial rental space
Built by the Colchester Mill Co.,1884, and leased to John S.
After textiles, Mill 4 spent part of its time hosting shoe companies,
Poyen, major purveyor of hardware for carriage makers. Pettingell
which became an important mid-20th century Amesbury business.
Machine Co. then began making auto bodies and machinery
The Bailey family still owns the building.
there, spawning the related Bella Body Co.. The Bailey Co. used
Hodge & Clark, Thomas Co. auto bodies ca. 1907 1910 the building mid-century as part of their sprawling business
Clark Body Co. Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac ca. 1918 ca. 1920 making felt-lined channels for automobile-door sliding windows.
Bailey Company Inc. (The) felt lined window glass chnnels 1933
Walker & Wells Franklin, Studebaker, Holmes Air Cooled 1909 1911
Pettingell Metal Body Co. machinery, body parts, metal bodies 1913 1950
Bela (Albert G.) Body Co. Winton 1915 1916
29 Water St. Clark Body Co. Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac ca. 1916 ca. 1918
6 Built in 1876 for carriage body making Bailey Company Inc. (The) felt lined window chnnels & mouldings 1950
One of several buildings built 1876-7 by William Biddle, after fire
destroyed his original shop. Biddle joined with William Smart in 79 Elm St
1880 to become Biddle & Smart, and they subsequently expanded 8 Built in 1882 as commercial rental space
to numerous buildings on Water Street. Their company committed Built by the Colchester Mill Co., 1882. First Amesbury home of S.
heavily to auto body making in 1906, building the foundry next R. Bailey (from Maine), maker of carriages & sleighs. Currier
door that later became the city street department garage. The Cameron & Co. then occupied it, with Bailey, also making
existing building became part of the foundry operation. carriages. C. C. & Co. later began making auto bodies for Duryea,
. Stanley, & Locomobile, producing a majority of the Stanley
Biddle, Smart & Co. Mercer Packard, Peereless, Hudson, Rolls-Royce 1906 1930 steamer bodies. C. C. & Co. failed after Stanley went bankrupt &
Amesbury Brass & Foundry Co. patterns & flasks ca. 1915 defaulted on debts.
Currier Cameron & Co. Stanley Steamer, Locomobile ,Duryea 1900 1923
Amesbury Metal Body Co. auto & truck bodies 1907 1911
Walker Wells Co. wood & metal construction 1911 1918
Bartley Machine Complex Biddle, Smart & Co. Mercer Packard, Peereless, Hudson, Rolls-Royce 1923 1930
7 Built in the 1950s on the site of previous Biddle & Smart factories
Except for one older building (ca. 1925), the Quonset huts and 85 Elm St.
parallel building occupy the former site of the town’s second 8 Built in 1866 as textile mill, having steam & water power
largest factory, where Biddle & Smart made both carriages and Original building of the Colchester Mill Co. and operated as a
auto bodies. The Bailey Co. built the newer buildings after WWII textile mill for 10-15 years. It was then leased to a carriage wheel
as storage and machine shops, subsequently passing to Bartley maker, after which the Colchester Mill Co. became essentially a
Machine Co., which closed in 2016. real estate firm. In the early 20th century, Gayden Morrill, of
Bailey Company Inc. (The) ca. 1948 Hollander & Morrill auto bodies, was President of Colchester Mill
Biddle, Smart & Co. Mercer Packard, Peereless, Hudson, Rolls-Royce ca. 1925 Co. This building no longer exists, although portions of its engine
Bailey Company Inc. (The) felt lined window chnnels & mouldings ca. 1948
Bailey Company Inc. (The) felt lined window chnnels & mouldings ca. 1948
house remain, at rear.
Currier Cameron & Co. Stanley Steamer, Locomobile 1900 1923
Biddle, Smart & Co. Mercer Packard, Peereless, Hudson, Rolls-Royce 1923 1930
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 57/1/2018
Bailey Manufacturing Co. Felt-Lined Window Channels
Carriage & sleigh maker, Samuel R. Bailey, started in rented space at 79 Elm Street. After the Carriage Hill
fire of 1888, he rented space there in a large new factory, which he purchased in 1903, producing a sample
automobile for the Essex Steam Car Co. in 1905. He soon took up manufacturing an electric automobile,
with technical help from Thomas Edison, who was trying to develop practical auto batteries and charging
stations (Edison & Bailey electric above). By 1915, electric autos succumbed to the competition of gas and
steam engines, so that S. R. Bailey & Son ceased operations and sold their factory to Biddle & Smart.
The son, Edward, experimented with new ideas, developing the product and manufacturing techniques to
make felt lined window channels, for sliding windows in auto doors. (likely aided by a local industry in felt
hat making.) He productionized to full-scale manufacture in Mill 8, on Friend Street, and after outgrowing
that, moved to larger quarters in Mill 14 & 14½. The company expanded to many other local buildings,
including the old hat factory, before moving to nearby Salisbury, where they continued into the 1970s. They
were Amesbury’s longest-lived member of the automobile industry.
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 67/1/2018
Railroad Ave. Looking SE – 1890s Walker Wells Area
C. W. Long Walker Wells 3 Railroad Walker Wells 2 Walker Wells 1
carriages trestle Folger & Drummond (1887) N.H. Folger* (1889)
J. T. Clarkson
carriages (1886)
The Barn
restaurant
(now red)
* German Autosport today is on the location of N. H. Foot bridge across Back River, same
Folger building (upper right) location as current foot bridge
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 77/1/2018
Railroad View Along Walker Wells Bldg. – ca. 1915
Walker - Wells Co. Factory 2 Babcock Building – Bailey Electric Hollander & Morrill,
formerly Folger & Drummond Car, then Biddle & Smart after 1914 later Walker Body Co.
If we walk down the railroad tracks from the passenger station, this is the view of the
auto body making complex from the middle of the railroad trestle over Back River.
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 87/1/2018
Walker Wells, Left & Right of Tracks - Looking NW
ca. 1914
Walker Wells 1913-1918 R. H. Morrill wood Mill 17 RR Walker Wells (1915-1931)
formerly N.H. Folger (1889) planning mill Station formerly Folger & Drummond
Looking back the opposite direction, from the Hollander & Morrill elevator tower seen at right on
the previous page.
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 97/1/2018
Water St. & Chestnut St. Area Looking SE – 1886 or “87
Biddle & Smart complex along Water Street & Back River
White Bldg. (1886) Brick factory (1882) at current Engine house 29 Water St.
Chestnut St. & Quonset huts Water St. Exists today
Foot bridge across Back River, same location as current
foot bridge. N. H. Folger building does not yet exist.
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 107/1/2018
Water St. & Chestnut St. Area Looking SSW – 1890s
Biddle & Smart complex along Water Street & Back River
Bartley Machine area White bldg. Engine house 29 Water St.
(1886) Water St.
Water St. (1889) Water St., (1882)
Carriage loading sheds The Biddle & Smart White Building resides on the driveway
along railroad tracks into today’s German Autosport. A 20-foot high embankment
to the right of that driveway rises up to the old railroad bed.
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 117/1/2018
Water St. & Chestnut St. Area Looking SSW - 1917
Biddle & Smart, White Building & two brick buildings beyond, in Bartley
Machine area during the automotive era. Railroad tracks run in front of
the buildings, as viewed here. Water St. is behind them.
Millyard and Water Street Auto Body Manufacturing Sites 12You can also read
