  Irvine_laird Member Username: Irvine_laird Post Number: 90 Registered: 02-2007 |
I've been working with Habitat for Humanity to build and rehabilitate homes in southeastern Pontiac. This neighborhood is formally called "Ferry Farms" subdivision after the Ferry Seed Farm that once occupied the land before 1902. When entered the neighborhood on Osmun Street from Woodward Avenue, I pass a large brick building (built in 1901) that is the former Standard Vehicle Company. Later, it became a warehouse for Sears, Roebuck, and Company. I did a Google search for "Standard Vehicle Company" and came up with almost nothing. However, while reading about the famous Fisher brothers, I discovered that the first two or three came to Detroit from Ohio to work for their uncle's carriage manufacturer: Standard Vehicle Company. Is this one and the same? Is the building on Osmun the first place where the Fishers worked when they arrived in Detroit? | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 3160 Registered: 11-2007 |
Other than knowing that Pontiac was a carriage manufacturing hub, thus Oakland etc., the only reference to a Standard car I could find in my books, was a British/Australian history. Possibly import/export of cars or parts to the Pontiac area ? Try a search on the Standard Rhyl, made by R.W. Maudsley 1903-1913+. Thats all I could find or offer. | ||
Hornwrecker Member Username: Hornwrecker Post Number: 2147 Registered: 04-2005 |
There's some info on the Standard Wagon Works (1880s-1908) on this page about the history of Fisher: http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/ f/fisher/fisher.htm Do you have an address for the building, so I can put it into my db? | ||
Irvine_laird Member Username: Irvine_laird Post Number: 89 Registered: 02-2007 |
I looked at the building, but could not find an address. It stands on Osmun Street at the corner of Woodward Avenue. That's about as much detail as I can give. In the meantime, I did some more Web sleuthing. Alfred Fisher, uncle to the famous Fisher brothers, started Standard Carriage Works in the 1880s and ran the company until 1908, when he provided most of the capital to establish Fisher Body. I have heard (and read some time ago) that the Standard Vehicle Company in Pontiac built carriages until the early 20th century, when it attempted to switch to auto bodies. Some of the sources I found on Fisher Body indicated the Alfred Fisher's Standard Carriage Works did, in fact, switch to auto body production around 1902. Every reference, however, has Standard Carriage Works in Detroit, not Pontiac. Even so, the similarity is too great to be coincidence. Did Alfred Fisher's company have more than one location--one in Detroit and another in Pontiac? Were there two carriage companies by the "Standard" name in metro Detroit? |
