May 28, 1928 – Chrysler Buys the Dodge Brothers Company
1928 Chrysler logo
May 28, 1928 marks an important milestone in the history of Chrysler. It was on this day in 1928 that Dodge Brothers, Inc. became a part of Chrysler. It was on this same date that Lewis Reed, founder of Reed Brothers Dodge in Rockville, Maryland also became an original member of the Chrysler family.
During 1920, the Dodge Brothers company lost its founding fathers. John Dodge died in January, and his younger brother Horace succumbed the following December. A New York investment banking firm paid the brothers’ widows, in a single cash payment, $146 million for the Dodge Brothers firm. Within three years, the bankers initiated negotiations, and on May 28, 1928, Walter P. Chrysler purchased Dodge Brothers, Inc. for $170 million, making it, at the time, the largest business transaction in history. When the transaction was complete, the Chrysler Corporation had grown five-fold overnight to become the third of Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers.
The first Plymouth was built in 1928 and Plymouths were sold at Reed Brothers until 1969, when the Plymouth brand was given to the Chrysler dealers.
2 responses to “May 28, 1928 – Chrysler Buys the Dodge Brothers Company”
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Reed Brothers Dodge History (1915-2012) by Jeanne Gartner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Reed Brothers Dodge History 1915 – 2012 
I don’t remember Reed Bros selling Plymouths. I thought Maryland Motors up the street had the Chrysler-Plymouth franchise.
Hi Edward,
Plymouths were sold at Reed Brothers from 1930-1969, when the Plymouth brand was given to the Chrysler dealers.
At the time, there were three Rockville dealerships that sold Plymouths:
Reed Brothers Dodge-Plymouth
Maryland Motors DeSoto-Plymouth
Shipley Motor Sales Chrysler-Plymouth
As always, thank you for reading and commenting.
Jeanne