Tag Archive | Lewis Reed photos

Dirt Roads of Rural Montgomery County

In the early 19th century, most roads were dreadful. Rural roads were often hard and bumpy; in warm months, they were dry and dusty, while in the spring they were wet and muddy. In winter, they could be covered with ice or snow. Most roads were so narrow that if two buggies met, one might be forced into a ditch along the side of the road. In those days there were few bridges, so drivers simply drove their wagons through rivers and streams.

The popularity of the car coincided with the improvement of public roads around Rockville. Rockville Pike’s reputation as “one of the worst pieces of main highway in the state” helped initiate Maryland’s Good Roads Movement. Responding to citizen demands, the newly created State Roads Commission incorporated the Pike into the state highway system. By 1929, when Montgomery County residents owned 13,000 cars, the Pike and Montgomery Avenue had been paved, but less traveled Veirs Mill Road remained a narrow dirt road for decades. By the end of 1935, the highway was paved as a macadam road.

Veirs Mill Road

History: Veirs Mill Road is named for a grist and sawmill on Rock Creek built by Samuel Clark Veirs in 1838 and operated by his family until 1924. This mill drew business from Rockville and Mitchell’s Crossroads, which later became Wheaton, along its namesake road. Below, two images of Viers Mill Road, c. 1911, showing deep ruts in the surface. Wagon wheels and tires of the time were very thin, and would sink straight into ruts, sometimes getting stuck.

Veirs Mill Road 1911

Veirs Mill Road looking east prior to paving. Photo by Lewis Reed, 1911

From the “Washington Times:
Stalled in the mud… “Although he put on the entire 20-horsepower of his machine and called in assistance of several neighbors, it was not until shovels and crowbars had been procured to move his car… he was able to resume his journey. This experience not only caused more than an hour’s delay in reaching the city but the wear and tear on himself, those who rendered assistance, and incidentally, the machine. Thus, at least two months of the life of a $3,000 auto was spent in simply traversing a short stretch of roadway.
Veirs Mill Road 1911

Veirs Mill Road looking east prior to paving. Photo by Lewis Reed, 1911

Montgomery County had 790 miles of unimproved dirt roads in 1899 and only 45 miles of stone, gravel, or macadam roads. The only good roads in the County were the turnpikes in the northeast; they accounted for all but 8 miles of the improved highways. The Union Turnpike Company operated from the District line at Silver Spring to Brookeville, from Olney to Ashton,and from Sandy Spring to Glenmont. The Washington, Colesville, and Ashton Turnpike Company maintained Colesville Road from Ashton to Silver Spring.

Darnestown Road

Lewis Reed grew up in Darnestown, so many of his streetscapes depict that specific region of Montgomery County.

History: The Darnestown area, which was located at the intersection of Darnestown and Seneca Roads, was settled in the 1750s. Darnestown Road (or Route 28) was an old Indian trail and is recognized as one of the oldest roads in Montgomery County, Maryland. During the 1870s through 1900, Darnestown was a thriving business hub due to its trade linked to the canal. Darnestown became an important place for commerce in the area. Seneca Road led to a sandstone mill and the C&O canal at Seneca Village. From Darnestown one could travel either by stagecoach along Darnestown Road or board a packet boat on the canal at Seneca.

After the Civil War, Darnestown experienced an economic downturn due to the increased popularity of the railroad, which bypassed the area. The mill business decreased and some farmers tried their hand at tobacco farming. This proved to be unprofitable for most and many people left the area. It wasn’t until World War II that Darnestown began to grow and prosper again.

Route 28, Darnestown Road 1907

Route 28, Darnestown Road 1907 – Martin Thompson House, owned by Lewis Reed’s maternal grandfather.

Route 28, in Darnestown is depicted in this photo before paving. What is now Route 28 is one of the earliest roads in the county, and was one of the main ways farmers in Poolesville, Darnestown, Dickerson, and Barnesville reached the courthouse in Rockville.

Darnestown dirt roads

Darnestown. Photo by Lewis Reed

Darnestown Rt 28

Darnestown, Rt 28. Photo by Lewis Reed

At the time the photo above was taken, the Griffith family owned the house and lot in the foreground. The frame and log house may have been built as early as the 1850s; by 1863 it was used as a house and store by Samuel Fisher. Fisher eventually sold the property to Ulysses Griffith and James Windsor, who also used it as a store. Griffith and Windsor continued as partners for ten years, until Windsor built his own store and house at the southwest corner of Seneca and Darnestown roads.

Darnestown along Rt 28

Darnestown along Rt 28. Photo by Lewis Reed

Darnestown dirt road

Darnestown. Photo by Lewis Reed

Darnestown dirt road

Darnestown dirt road. Photo by Lewis Reed

Seneca Road

History: The first segment of MD 112 was a 1-mile concrete road south from MD 28 in Darnestown that was built in 1923.The highway was extended southwest to the hamlet of Seneca just east of Seneca Creek in 1929 and 1930. MD 112’s western terminus was originally a short distance west of MD 190; the highway was truncated at MD 190 between 1975 and 1977.

Seneca Road

Seneca Road. Note the horse and buggy traveling up the road in the distance. A motorcycle (perhaps Lewis Reed’s) sits on the side of the road near the dead tree. Photo by Lewis Reed

Norbeck Road (Rt, 28)

Route 28 has existed since before the Civil War, and it remained a mud path for years into the automobile age.

Norbeck Road Rockville

Norbeck Road, near Rockville. In the far distance are two pedestrians; in the nearer distance a one- or two-person buggy is traveling away from the camera. Photo by Lewis Reed

Horse and Buggy Hunting Hill Rockville

Horse and Buggy on Hunting Hill Rockville. Photo by Lewis Reed

Hunting Hill and Quince Orchard, the first of eight small communities along Route 28 west of Rockville, have been transformed largely because of a single building on a historic estate. In 1942, Otis Beall Kent purchased the estate of Frederick A. Tschisfely, a Washington wholesale druggist, and consolidated four farms to make a 1,000-acre farm. He built seven lakes, maintained his own fire department and dreamed of such things as a hydroelectric plant on the property.

Dirt road and bicycle

Dirt road and bicycle. Photo by Lewis Reed

Cedar Lane Bethesda

Cedar Lane Bethesda. Photo by Lewis Reed

Roads to the Future

Rockville Pike’s reputation as “one of the worst pieces of main highway in the state” eventually helped initiate Maryland’s Good Roads Movement, alongside a nationwide initiative to improve America’s roads. Responding to citizen demands, the newly created State Roads Commission incorporated the Rockville Pike into the state highway system.

In 1956, President Eisenhower passed legislation to implement (arguably) the greatest public-works project in U.S. history: the Interstate Highway System. With this, every major city in America would be connected via highway construction, and mobility within the U.S. would ideally become limitless: a giant leap from the dirt roads and muddy paths that existed at the beginning of the century.
Rural Montgomery County road

Ironically, Montgomery County would eventually enact legislation to protect some of its rural roads from the type of traffic-conscious expansion that could spoil the natural beauty of the landscape on either side of the drive, as shown in this early 20th century photograph. Photo by Lewis Reed

Rare Images of Early Rockville from Lewis Reed’s Collection

Unknown street in Rockville

This photograph was marked only “Rockville.” Note that the sidewalks are board planks elevated from street level. Photo by Lewis Reed ca, 1912

What makes Rockville such an interesting place? It’s interesting history! Old photos have an amazing way of showing us what life was like years ago and depicting how our communities once looked. You might not realize how much things have changed until you look back and see what it looked like in the past.

A bit of Rockville history: More than 250 years ago, land grants to European settlers formed the nucleus for today’s Rockville, Maryland. By the 1750s local farmers were transporting tobacco to market in Georgetown down a road formerly used by Indians. The tiny settlement was designated as the seat of the new Montgomery County in 1776. Known as Rockville by 1803, the town’s life centered on Courthouse activity. More homes and shops were built, and the town of nearly 600 was incorporated in 1860. The dynamics that created Rockville in the 18th and 19th centuries are still the same ones attracting newcomers today: the presence of county government, a favorable location close to the nation’s capital, converging transportation routes that bring people here, and identity as an independent municipality.

Take a journey back in time through the lens of Lewis Reed and see what Rockville looked like more than one hundred years ago. As always, click the photos to get a better look.

Rockville Town Square, 1914

North side of East Montgomery Avenue near the courthouse, ca. 1914. Note the trolley car on the left. Photo by Lewis Reed

Shops sold groceries, baked goods, sewing machines, hats, lumber, and hardware. Families lived above their stores, renting rooms to others.

Rockville Town Square, 1912

Court House Triangle. The large white house behind the Confederate Statue is the Hicks House.  The Montgomery House Hotel is to the right of the Hicks House, just out of the image. Photo by Lewis Reed, 1914

On September 28, 1917 a draft for World War I began and the first 40 men reported for duty at the Montgomery County Court House in Rockville, Maryland. In the photograph below, cars are parked around the court house during the speech-making in the court room to drafted men. Montgomery County’s first recruits left Rockville by train for Camp Meade, Maryland on this same day. They each received a package of smoking tobacco and a rousing send-off from two thousand people after speeches at the courthouse, dinner at the Montgomery House Hotel, and a parade to the depot. About 160 Rockville men served in the eighteen-month war. One of those men was Rockville resident, Edgar Reed. Edgar was fortunate enough to survive World War I and to settle back in Rockville and enjoy a successful life and career in the automobile business.

Montgomery County Court House 1917

Montgomery County Court House.  Photo by Lewis Reed, 1917.

Notice that most of the cars in the above photo have two license plates: at this time, you needed a separate tag to drive a car in the District of Columbia. There is also horse dung in the dirt road (E. Montgomery Avenue), suggesting buggies had been by recently as well. Barely visible in the background left is the Maryland National Bank building, which was demolished during urban renewal in the late 1960s.

Suburban Electrical Co Montogomery Ave

Suburban Electrical Company on Montgomery Avenue in Rockville. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca.1914

The upper story of this building was the living quarters of Mr and Mrs B. F. Hicks. The building was later acquired by W. Valentine Wilson, who tore it down and replaced is with the “SECO” for Mr Wilson’s Suburban Electric Company. The ground floor was made into a moving picture theater.

W. Hikcs Genral Store Rockville 1914

W. Hicks General Store on Montgomery Avenue Rockville. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca. 1914

Washington Hicks operated this general or dry goods store in Rockville from the late 19th century until 1940. His son W. Guy Hicks continued to run the store until his retirement in the late 1950s. The photo above shows the storefront in 1914.

Montogomery Avenue Rockville 1914

H. Reisinger Lunch Room on Montgomery Avenue Rockville 1914. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca. 1914

H. Reisinger Bakery, Confectionery, Ice Cream and Lunch Room, 5 and 10-cent Bargain Store on Montgomery Avenue, Rockville.

J. P. Collins General Store

Clerks at J. F. Collins General Store on East Montgomery Avenue. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca, 1914

On a bleak night in February 1921, a pistol shot was fired while others yelled, “Fire!”. From John Collin’s store on East Montgomery Avenue — beloved by local children for Cracker Jacks and penny candy — flames reached toward the sky. Volunteers arrived with buckets while others operated the hose reels and hook and ladder truck. The main street was saved with help from men and equipment of Washington, D.C., but Collins’s store was a smouldering ruin. A few weeks later, fifty concerned townspeople elected officers of the newly formed Rockville Volunteer Fire Department.

Vinsons Drug Store 1912

Rockville looking east down Montgomery Avenue at Perry Street (now Maryland Avenue); Vinson’s Pharmacy is on the corner. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca. 1906.

Most roads in Montgomery County, even those running  though towns, were dirt. In the photo above, taken in downtown Rockville, a delivery wagon can be seen at the curb, as well as advertisements for Coca-Cola, which would have been a product only 20 years old at that time, having been invented and trademarked in 1887. Trolley tracks bisect Montgomery Avenue. Today, the view down this street ends with stairs to the pedestrian overpass, which leads over Hungerford Drive into the Rockville Metro Station.

The drugstore was built in the 1880s and was run by Robert William “Doc” Vinson from 1900 until his death in 1958. The drugstore was also a popular gathering place for city politicians, and that President Woodrow Wilson once personally traveled there to buy Wolfhound tablets. The building was torn down in 1962, and replaced with an office building during Rockville’s “urban renewal”.

Fearon's Pharmacy Rockville 1912

Vinson’s Drug Store Fearon’s Pharmacy (as named in the window; also Owen’s and Vinson’s at other times). L to R Tom Talbott, Wardlow Mason, Otho Talbott, unknown, Dr. Fearon. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca. 1898.

Rockville Town Hall

Rockville Town Hall. Photo by Lewis Reed, 1912

Rockville Town Hall was incorporated in 1881 to “improve the educational, moral, scientific, literary and social condition of the community. Stock sold at ten dollars per share raised most of the six thousand dollars needed to erect a handsome two-story brick building on Montgomery Avenue. The Town Hall opened on Tuesday evening, July 18,1882. For the next half century, the Town Hall operated as a small-town cultural center, with a four hundred-seat auditorium on the second floor, a stage, balcony, and dressing rooms, a ticket office on the lower level and seven leased offices. The community used the facility for visiting lectures, theatrical and musical performances, dances, and other suitable “instruction and amusement”.

Rockville Court House

Rockville Court House. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca. 1914

For most of Montgomery County’s history, a single building, familiarly known as “The Courthouse,” served all functions of local government. The Red Brick Courthouse is the county’s third on this site, constructed in 1891 at a cost of $50,000. Roads were crude, daily trains connected county commuters and farmers with the nation’s capital, and trolley tracks were planned between Rockville and Georgetown. The county’s 27,185 residents visited the courthouse as litigants and jurors, to pay taxes, buy dog tags, probate wills, obtain marriage and business licenses, record deeds, speak to County Commissioners, and request law enforcement from the Sheriff. Designated a historic building on July 19, 1965 by the Montgomery County Historical Society.

St Marys Church

St Marys Catholic Church. Photo by Lewis Reed, c. 1914.

Founded in 1813, historic St. Mary’s Church led the way for Catholics in Montgomery County. The cemetery in front of the chapel is the final resting place of literary legend F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda.

Sources:
75 Years of Rockville, Maryland
As remembered by William F. Prettyman

Rockville: Portrait of a City by Eileen S. McGuckian

Step Into Christmas Past at Reed Family Home

Lewis Reed Family home

Lewis Reed’s craftsman-style home, looking rather solitary on a snowy day. Photo by Lewis Reed.

The following photos from Lewis Reed’s collection are a fabulous glimpse into Christmas inside the Reed family home at 301 North Frederick Avenue in Gaithersburg, Maryland. It was not a huge house, a modest Sears and Roebuck craftsman-style home built in 1926. Some of my earliest memories are visits to this home as I spent a lot of time there during my childhood.

A lot of people assume that the traditions we follow have looked pretty much the same since their inception but, in most cases, like everything else in life, Christmas has definitely changed over the years.

George Washington snowman

Snow on the ground means it’s time for building a (presidential) snowman. This photo is Lewis Reed and the snowman he built of George Washington.

The trees were big back then and always fresh. They went right to the ceiling and were very wide. Early Christmas trees were generally fastened onto a flat board surrounded with fence-rails, snow villages and carpeted with cotton blankets of snow. Lots of tinsel and strings of popcorn garnish the trees.

vintage Christmas tree

A small snow scene with what appears to be a miniature church is arranged at the foot of the Christmas tree. A popcorn garland adorns the tree. Photo by Lewis Reed

vintage Christmas tree

No room for a star on the top of this tree! And just look at those big Santa and Angel dolls. A miniature church with picket fence is arranged at the base of the tree. Photo by Lewis Reed

Below are photos of Lewis Reed’s snow village set up under the Christmas tree decorated with vintage ornaments, tinsel, and lights. I used to have a ton of fun helping my grandfather set up the miniature landscapes with the varied figures, little houses, and trees at Christmastime each year. It seemed like a holiday village right out of a storybook.

1900s Christmas village

A rustic picket fence is used to set off the village display. Photo by Lewis Reed

The snow villages were set up in Lewis Reed’s basement on top of a big table beneath a small Christmas tree. He made the snow scenes entirely by hand using wire-covered cardboard and balled up paper to make hills and pathways. The little houses and figurines would fit into the landscape with cotton ‘snow’ all around; and lights would be wired underneath. It was just amazing to me.

1900s Christmas village

Little houses, churches, fences, trees, and pathways were added to the scene. Some of the houses have charming light effects in the windows. Photo by Lewis Reed

These Christmas villages were precursors of the Holiday Villages that were made popular by Dept. 56 that you see today.

1900s Christmas village

Old-fashioned lights can be seen on the tree, along with lit windows in the houses. Photo by Lewis Reed

Looking back on these memories now in my adult mind is like watching my favorite Christmas movie. They are memories of my grandparents house at Christmastime, and are ones I will always treasure.

Then & Now: Saylorsburg Lake House & Hotel of Horror

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to feature a photograph that Lewis Reed took of the Saylorsburg Lake House Hotel, now the site of Hotel of Horror. The aging Lake House Hotel in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, once a vibrant Poconos retreat, was a popular hotel for the region’s tourists who were looking for fun on nearby Saylors Lake. During the hotel’s heyday, its staff was booking rooms a year in advance. Today, the former hotel’s fame is generated from its annual Halloween haunted-house attraction.

Lake House Hotel (THEN): The legend of the Lake House Hotel spans more than two-hundred years. According to local folklore, during World War II, many of the employees at the Lake House were called to assist in the Pennsylvania National Guard, leaving the local asylum with one lone security guard to watch over the entire building. The inmates escaped, made their way to the hotel and took it over. The insane patients performed experiments on the guests. What was once a renowned resort for the rich and famous, became a torture chamber.

Saylorsburg Lake House

Saylorsburg Lake House Hotel. Photo taken by Lewis Reed, 1915.

Hotel of Horror (NOW): This 2019 season will celebrate the 27th year that the Hotel of Horror has been fascinating and horrifying legions of fans from the far reaches of the United States and even internationally. To all the readers of this blog: Have a spooky, enjoyable and very safe Halloween!

Saylorsburg Hotel of Horror

Welcome to The Hotel of Horror, The Pocono Mountains Premier Haunted House Attraction

Happy Halloween

Reed Photo Collection Highlight: Early 20th Century Motorcars

Each of the images below from Lewis Reed’s Collection has a car included, whether as a center point of a family photo, in the background of life’s moments, or on a cross-country road trip. These photos give a snapshot not just of the cars at the time, but a peak into an important aspect of the everyday lives of County residents.

There were no paved highways for automobiles to shoot along at 60 and 70 miles an hour; just country roads, filled with ruts, sand, and mud, over which no one wanted to drive at the maximum speed of passenger cars, which was about 30 miles an hour. But every trip was a different adventure.

early automobile

In the early 20th century, traveling cross-country by automobile was intimidating, if not a little bit dangerous. Cars were unreliable and roads were rough. The child in the photo is my mother, Mary Jane Reed Gartner. Photo by Lewis Reed

A cross-country road trip is a quintessentially American experience. It’s always an adventure, but in modern times it’s a relatively tame one: The roads are paved, signs point the way, and Siri always has your back. If cars had cup holders back then, these folks would be rolling with crystal goblets, not Big Gulps.

Come away with me, Lucille: In my merry Oldsmobile: Down the road of life we’ll fly: Automo-bubbling, you and I….

1918 Oldsmobile Roadster

Ethelene Thomas Reed, who married Lewis Reed in 1921, is sitting in passenger seat of a circa 1918 Oldsmobile Club Roadster and her sister, Celeste Thomas Brown, is sitting behind her in the back seat. Photo by Lewis Reed

1918 Oldsmobile

1918 Oldsmobile Roadster shown with Ethelene and her sister Celeste behind the wheel. Photo taken by Lewis Reed at the Clinton Clay Thomas family farm which was located on Butterfly Lane in Braddock, Maryland. Photo by Lewis Reed

Back in the early part of the last century when the automobile was still new and a novelty, it was often used for Kodak moments.

1911 Speedwell Touring

Two ladies posing in a 1911 Speedwell Touring car. Check out the humongous steering wheel! Photo by Lewis Reed

The photographs below was taken by Lewis Reed on one of his many cross country road trips. The car is a 1935 Dodge Touring Sedan with Maryland Dealer license plates. Note the rear-hinged “Suicide Door”. Cars of this era did not have seat belts, so there was nothing to hold a passenger in the car. The term “suicide doors” was therefore placed on vehicles with the rear-hinged door configuration, the theory being that the forward motion of the car could cause the door to fly open, possibly causing the unlucky person sitting next to the door to be pulled out of the car, or the door itself could be ripped from its hinges.

1935 Dodge Touring Sedan

I have no idea what prompted my grandfather to take a photo at this location, but perhaps it was the amazing view in the background. Photo by Lewis Reed

1935 Dodge Touring

Lewis Reed’s 1935 Dodge Touring Sedan. Photo by Lewis Reed

In order for occupants of early 1920’s cars to remain warm during the cold winter months, especially when it was snowing, it was necessary for them to dress warmly and cover themselves with blankets. Note the car in the photo below is mostly open-bodied, with no windows and certainly no heat. Tire chains are on the rear tires. I cannot say with any certainty, but I believe it is Lewis Reed’s car with his wife and baby daughter, Mary Jane, sitting inside all bundled up.

Bear Pits Buffalo Zoo 1920s

Buffalo Zoo Bear Pits, Buffalo, New York, ca. early 1920s. Photo by Lewis Reed.

Early motorists weren’t afraid to drive in the snow simply because they didn’t have 4-wheel drive and electronic assistance; they just got out and did it. Who would dare go out in these conditions today without an AWD SUV and heated seats?

old car in snow

Car stopped (stuck?) on snowbound road. Although no tire chains are in evidence, they might have been useful coming up that hill. Photo by Lewis Reed

Nobody really thinks about it today. If your car is too cold, then simply switch on the “heater” and soon your car will be warm. However, it wasn’t always that way. What passengers did back then, in the early days of motoring, was bundle up as if one was outdoors. This meant heavy clothing, winter gloves and snow boots. It wasn’t long, however, before car makers realized that a few comforts, like heat in the passenger compartment, or even some type of heated seating, would help sell cars.

1920 Hudson Six

There weren’t heaters in these old cars, so motorists had to really bundle up. Photo by Lewis Reed

1920 Oldsmobile

Lewis Reed’s 1920 Oldsmobile stopped along Goshen Road outside rural Gaithersburg. Photo by Lewis Reed

In 1900 car owners were almost by definition wealthy, especially since they often employed chauffeurs: many wouldn’t have dreamed of trying to operate their own vehicles. The earliest car owners had no real repair business to turn to. To be a successful motorist in the early 1900s, you needed to have some sort of mechanical skills. Or you had to find someone who did. Wealthy people employed private chauffeur-mechanics to not only drive, but also maintain and repair their large, expensive automobiles — rather than learn to do it themselves. Chauffeurs would be in charge of everything to do with the owner’s motor vehicle including repairs and maintenance and cleaning this meant that early personal chauffeurs had to be skilled mechanics. Pierce-Arrow was one of the most common makers of luxury cars in the early 20th century. The price for one of these vehicles was sometimes as much as ten times the price of a standard touring car.

Lewis Reed Chauffeur 1910

Two ladies with parasols are sitting in the landaulet section of an early Pierce-Arrow limousine, while chauffeur Lewis Reed tends to the motor. The rear portion of the limousine is partitioned from the driver with a glass shield, and covered by a convertible top, which you can see is currently in the lowered position behind the ladies. Ca. 1910

Chauffeur Lewis Reed (left) with unidentified family, 1914

Chauffeur Lewis Reed (left) in the 1914 photo above poses with an unidentified family and their Pierce-Arrow Model 48.

This photo taken by Lewis Reed in the early 1920s was not picked for its shock value, but for the history it contains of an era long since gone. In the first 10 years of the 1900s, there were no stop signs, traffic lights, lane lines, brake lights, driver’s licenses, or posted speed limits. It was the wild west when it came to driving. Drinking and driving? Not that big a deal. Poorly maintained roads, uneducated drivers, and speeds approaching 40 mph was the perfect combination for some really bad accidents. This photograph sure hits home with just how fragile those early cars were.
old car wreck

Motor carnage. Photo by Lewis Reed, ca. 1920

Early automobiles were unreliable. They broke down frequently and needed to be pulled out of mud or snow by horses. They meant it back in the good old days when motorists were advised to “get a horse”. The photo shows William Beall in his 1915 Pullman in front of old St Mary’s Church and his younger brother Vernon on horseback “towing” him to Reed Brothers.

horses towing old car

Early transportation powered by true “horsepower”. Photo taken by Lewis Reed, 1915

The touring car was one of the most common styles of automobile in the early decades of the 20th century. Nearly every auto manufacturer offered a vehicle in this style. Touring cars generally were denoted by an open body seating four or more people. Identified by the triangle logo on the grill and the number of passengers seated in it, the car below appears to be a 1918 Hudson Super Six Seven Passenger Touring. The Hudson and Oldsmobile were sold at Reed Brothers from roughly 1917 through 1923.

1918 Hudson Super Six Seven Passenger Touring

Anybody for a demonstration drive? Photo by Lewis Reed

Vehicles required much higher road clearances than modern cars due to the poor state of roads and tracks, hence the large diameter skinny tires of the day which were effective at cutting through mud to reach more solid ground.

early 1920s touring car

Early touring car with its top down. The folded top behind passengers was known as the “fan” when in the down position. Photo by Lewis Reed

The popularity of the touring car began to wane in the 1920s when cars with enclosed passenger compartments (i.e. fixed steel roofs) became more affordable, and began to consistently out-sell the open cars.

early 1920s touring car

Early touring car. Photo by Lewis Reed

The touring car body style was popular in the early 20th century, being a larger alternative to the two-seat roadster. The photo below was taken in 1915 by Lewis Reed in front of the original Rockville Garage. Old St Mary’s Church is in the background. Note the unpaved dirt road on Veirs Mill Road. Rockville Garage was a distributor of Fisk Tires until circa 1918, when they replaced it with the Firestone brand. The car appears to be a 1916 Studebaker Roadster. The roadster was a sportier style of vehicle, usually a two-seater with a convertible canopy roof. Many manufacturers offered roadster versions of their larger touring car models.

Fisk Tires

This photo was taken by Lewis Reed across from Reed Brothers Dodge, circa 1915. Old St Mary’s Church is in the background. Photo by Lewis Reed.

Ever want to see how sausage is made? Well, okay – maybe not… but this interesting photo taken by Lewis Reed some 100 plus years ago allows you to see how 18 men managed to cram themselves into a 1910-1911 Pierce Arrow Model 48 7-Passenger Touring. Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company in Buffalo, New York, produced some of the finest automobiles made and was one of the most popular high-quality cars of the time.

Car stuffing

Photo by Lewis Reed

The automobile has affected this country more than any other invention of its time. Without automobiles, life as we know it would not be the same, and the changes that they have brought can be seen in every aspect of our lives.