Early Automobiles in 19th Century Brookline

In the spring of 1891 an unusual vehicle appeared on the streets of Brookline. 

It had a body built by local carriage maker Michael Quinlan, with two seats up front and an enclosed wooden box behind. Inside the wooden box was a battery-powered electric motor that had been built at the Holtzer Cabot Electric Company factory on Station Street.

The vehicle had been built for lumber magnate Fiske Warren of Waltham. Warren had seen electric powered horseless carriages in France and wanted one for himself. 

Not everyone was happy to see the new contraption on local streets. The Boston Globe, in 1893, called Warren's vehicle "an uncomfortable fad for public highways and skittish horses," adding that "It is certainly ugly enough to frighten even enlightened humans."

One local resident, Philip Sears, petitioned the Board of Selectmen to ban such vehicles within the town, claiming that "the carriage was as noisy as a steam-roller" and that he narrowly escaped injury when his horse was frightened by Warren's electric carriage." Sears, according to the Boston Transcript "believed that if the carriage is allowed upon the streets his experience is not likely to be the only one of its kind."

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In 1895 Warren had another vehicle built, one that looked more like what we think of when we think of early automobiles. Holtzer Cabot made the engine for this one, too, and Charles Holtzer took the members of the Board of Selectman for a ride. 

Charles Holtzer (at the wheel) and Brookline's selectman taking a ride in Fiske Warren's 1895 electric automobile 

In May the Boston Herald ran a long article about "the electric road carriage," with a sketch of Warren's new vehicle. "It is not venturing too much," predicted the paper, "to anticipate that eventually the great bulk of our street and highway traffic will be done on carriages propelled by electricity or some other form of power."

In July the Brookline Chronicle noted that "Following close upon the bicycle and the trolley, the horseless carriage is coming into fashion." The tide was clearly turning, in Brookline and elsewhere. The biggest question seemed to be what to call these new forms of transportation.

Boston Globe, January 26, 1896 (reprinted from New York Herald)

In February 1896 the Board of Selectmen held a hearing in Town Hall to discuss widening Boylston Street from Cypress Street to the Newton line, in part to accommodate the growing use of bicycles as a means of transportation. But not just bicycles:

"Then there is the coming 'horseless carriage'," Alfred Chandler told the board, "already a successful mode of locomotion and of transportation, soon to be applied far and wide over our great domain."

 

"The manufacture of these vehicles on an extended scale for park and general usage has already begun," Chandler continued. "It would be folly to disregard this factor in building new thoroughfares. Bicycles and horseless carriages demand more room on our highways to secure comfort and safety for all who use them." 

There was even a plan, noted in an illustrated 1899 article, to bring motorized bus service to town, though it did not end up being implemented.

Brookline Chronicle, May 27, 1899

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By the turn of the century, automobiles were increasingly seen in Brookline, as they were in other U.S. cities and towns. (The 1904 Brookline directory, the first to list automobile owners, showed 175 households owning a total of 225 vehicles. By contrast, there were almost twice as many owners of horses, with most owning more than one and several more than a dozen.)

This page from the 1904 Brookline Directory shows some of the town's automobile owners, along with ads for the Peerless Motor Car Co. and the Brookline Automotive Garage.

Along with these early cars came early car accidents, like these, reported by in the local press:

Brookline Chronicle, July 15, 1899

The Suburban, July 20, 1899

Accidents or not, automobiles had begun their long run in Brookline.