One of St. Louis' 10 early auto manufacturers built cars here

1907 Dorris Motor Car Company Building, St. Louis Missouri

Date added: November 03, 2023 Categories: Missouri Industrial Auto Companies

The Dorris Motor Car Company, created and inspired by the engineering genius of George P. Dorris, made important contributions to the evolution of the American automobile and the early development of the automotive industry in St. Louis. Constructed in 1907, and expanded with a third floor in 1909, this building was the first factory and offices built for the Dorris Motor Car Company and was continuously used by the Dorris Company until it went out of business in 1926. The pioneering efforts of the Dorris Motor Car Company helped establish St. Louis as an early automotive center laying the groundwork for St. Louis' later significance as a location for major assembly plants and automobile parts manufacturing.

In 1898, George Preston Dorris and his boyhood friend, John L. French, organized the first automobile manufacturing company in St. Louis named the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company. Dorris was its Vice President and Chief Engineer due primarily to an experimental car he had developed earlier. Their first car, the St. Louis, had a patented single-cylinder engine, clutch, and transmission assembly in one unit. The car also included the Dorris float-feed carburetor, the first designed in the United States. After a 1903 win in the New York to Buffalo Race, French sold sixty-five of the cars in Boston that summer, practically the entire year's output, and hence the car was renamed the Boston Model.

French subsequently died and in 1905 French's brother moved the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company to Peoria, Illinois where he operated it for a few more years. Dorris, who did not want to leave St. Louis, resigned and with wealthy grocer, Henry B. Krenning as President, established the Dorris Motor Car Company at the site of the former St. Louis Motor Carriage Company on North Vandeventer. This North Vandeventer site was a three-story building in Dorris' day but it is now reduced to only one story and currently is used as a garage for automotive repair.

The company's first automobile, introduced in 1906, appropriately was named the Dorris. It was an innovative car incorporating a four-cylinder vertical valve-in-head motor with in-line valves, a unique concept Dorris had been working on for several years. It also used a single-unit power plant that combined the engine, clutch, and transmission but was improved with four cylinders cast in pairs and a multiple-disc clutch. The use of Timken roller bearings and the body-to-frame construction (two traverse arms to a central support with the engine carried directly on the main frame) added to the sturdiness of the machine

The introduction of the Dorris at the New York Automobile Show in January 1906, captured the attention of the automotive industry. The exhibit of the St. Louis-made autos was called "complete and excellent" by one New York paper. An early automobile enthusiasts' periodical, The Auto Review, reported in 1907 that St. Louis was "rapidly becoming recognized as an automobile center." The Auto Review also praised the Dorris: "The wonderful success of the Dorris car this past season, which was its first appearance on the American automobile market, was so pronounced and gave St. Louis such a proud distinction for having manufactured such an excellent automobile, that the coming season for this car means that the Dorris Motor Car Co. will be able to sell all the cars they can build. This car has a wonderful record for reliability, endurance and for the least cost of maintenance in the East, Middle West and Far West. All hail the 1907 Dorris!"

Therefore in 1907, due to increasing demand, national attention and the need for more production space, the Dorris Motor Car Company moved into the first factory built to its specifications at 22-38 South Sarah Street located on the corner of Forest Park Boulevard (currently 4063-4065 Forest Park Avenue). It was a very large and commodious $50,000 two-story factory. The handsome building, of masonry construction and interior iron columns, was designed by St. Louis architect, John L. Wees. (Wees previously had designed a 1902 mercantile building for Krenning's wholesale grocery operation.)

John Ludwig Wees, (1861-1942), was born in Alsace-Lorraine and educated in Heidelberg. At eighteen he spent a year of architectural study in Paris before emigrating to the United States in 1879 where he worked in a sewing machine factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut while studying art at night After employment as a draughtsman in Bridgeport and New York City, Wees came to St. Louis in 1882. Wees was in partnership with August M. Beinke until the latter's retirement in 1894. Wees practiced on his own in St. Louis from 1894 to 1916. His portfolio included houses, and commercial and institutional buildings. Other industrial commissions included the 1912 Dorris Motor Car Company plant and also automobile plants for Packard and Cadillac. Wees also designed ballparks for both the American and National League clubs. He spent the last 25 years of his career in Paris, Texas.

The Dorris factory was what architects termed a "slow combustion building," practically fireproof. It was constructed of the very best materials and the Dorris Company spared no expense in equipping this modern factory with the latest improved machinery especially adapted to auto manufacturing. On the first floor, it included an assembly room, machine shop, blacksmith shop, and offices. The second floor housed the painting and finishing room, the trimming room, and the woodworking area. The most important department in the new factory was the specially equipped testing rooms. Unlike mere car assemblers, Dorris, by contrast, had an entire engineering department conducting tests and experiments. Hence, the origination of numerous Dorris improvements and innovations.

In this new factory, the Dorris Company was able to build most of its own motor car parts, the only exceptions were the tires and tops. This practice brought all the different branches of construction under the supervision of its own mechanical experts, thereby enabling the company to make the Dorris an extremely reliable touring car. The capacity of the 1907 factory for a season was approximately 300; demand was great. With business booming, the Dorris Company expanded again by adding a third story to the South Sarah Street facility in 1909.

The 1907, October issue of the Auto Review, praised the 1908 Dorris as the "same reliable standard model of a real automobile that has won for it an enviable reputation during the past two years of its existence. The 1908 car, however, will have a straight-line body, but in other respects, very few changes will be made. There are in use in St. Louis something like forty Dorris cars and they are all giving the very best of satisfaction. You very seldom see a Dorris car stalled on either a level or on the steepest kind of hill. We predict a remarkable career for this enterprising company and their exceptionally reliable car."

The 1909 Dorris featured another important innovation, a speedometer geared to the transmission via a short cable. Other cars ran their speedometers off an exposed front-wheel gear using cables that were in harm's way and prone to kink. This innovation was the first known instance in which the transmission was used for driving an auxiliary of this sort.

The Dorris Company again planned for expansion and in 1912 built a larger $100,000 three-story factory and showroom just west of the existing plant across South Sarah and a half-block north on Laclede Avenue. This building was converted into condominiums in 1985. After the completion of the new plant, the automaker utilized the 1907 building at Forest Park and South Sarah as an auto servicing and repair facility.

The 1913 Dorris, the first line produced in the new plant and like all preceding models, was produced entirely by hand with all parts manufactured by Dorris. The Dorris six-cylinder engine with improved fuel "distillator" was inaugurated in 1916. The "distillator' collected heavy petroleum residues in the low-grade gasoline of the day where heat from the warming engine would vaporize the residue before being drawn into the engine and burned. The "distillator' resulted in greater fuel and oil economy, longer engine life, fewer carbon deposits, and smoother engine performance at colder temperatures. The car included the transmission-run speedometer and a self-starter, standard in the "Dorris" since 1911, a year before Cadillac. The model held the economy record for its class and weight for three successive years.

Dorris believed that the automobile should be as timeless as possible and the Company slogan became "Built Up to a Standard - Not Down to a Price." In spite of the technological success of the new car, actual production of the automobile declined due to its rising retail price. As the retail price rose and demand for the Dorris declined during the World War I era, the Company gradually turned its emphasis to trucks and buses. Although Dorris' production peaked following the War, it produced almost 400 cars and 117 trucks in 1920, the disastrous slowdowns during World War I and competitors' use of mass-produced bodies and automated assembly lines brought the demise of the high-priced, hand-crafted Dorris auto. Output plummeted in 1921 to fewer than three cars per week. Production methods had not been improved significantly since the birth of the Dorris automobile, which was still essentially a hand-built machine. Over its 20 years the Dorris Company produced a total of 3,044 cars and 909 trucks.

By 1923, stockholders anxious to protect their investments, were considering proposals for refinancing. None of the options materialized and in December 1923, Dorris stockholders voted to liquidate. In response to a suit to block liquidation that argued the liquidation would benefit only Krenning, the major shareholder, the Circuit Court ordered the dissolution of the Dorris Company. A year later, the Missouri Supreme Court in Jefferson City affirmed the judgment of the lower court. The Dorris Motor Car Company finally dissolved in 1926 and the 1907 Building passed out of the Dorris Company. The Dorris Company was simply unable to meet the strong competition of more aggressive firms with large capital using mass production techniques. Later the building was owned by the Brauer Brothers Shoe Company for a number of years and is currently used as an office furniture warehouse. Present plans provide for the renovation of the 1907 Building as open, loft-style office space.

Already in the early 1900s, St. Louis was becoming a major engineering and auto production center, and men like Dorris helped make it so. By 1911, St. Louis could boast of eight automobile manufacturers (however over the next six years it was reduced to two major producers of automobiles: Dorris and Moon) three immense assembly plants, and eight truck manufacturers. George P. Dorris and the Dorris Motor Car Company pioneered the automotive industry in St. Louis by giving the city its first automobile company as well as the designer and producer of the city's first cars, the first truck, the first bus, and the first skidoo or paddy wagon. The Dorris Company was the first to use Timken roller bearings, to perfect the one-cylinder engine with multiple-disc clutch and sliding gear transmission running in oil, to invent the first float-feed carburetor, to design the first valve-in-head four-cylinder engine and to produce the first transmission-run speedometer. The Dorris Company "distillator' was considered a key innovation in the era of low-grade gasoline. It is estimated that only a dozen or so Dorris-designed cars are still in existence. One of the earliest, a 1901 St. Louis, is on display at the National Museum of Transport in St. Louis County.

By the sunset of the Dorris Motor Car Company in 1926, the legacy of this and other St. Louis' early automotive entrepreneurs had forever changed the economic landscape of the city. Five large manufacturing plants by that time were building passenger cars. Six plants were building trucks or light delivery cars. One great body-building concern was turning out thousands of auto bodies for St. Louis: manufacturers or for those in other cities. At least six other body-building plants were manufacturing truck bodies. Two local plants were specializing in what was then a new method of transportation, the passenger bus. Two of the plants were subsidiaries of great automobile manufacturing institutions, Ford and General Motors/Fisher Body. In addition, Cupples Co., a great tire-producing plant, was shipping tires to all parts of the United States. McQuay-Norris Manufacturing Co. was one of the world's leading manufacturers of piston and piston rings. Numerous other St. Louis firms manufactured spark plugs, accessories, and supplies for motor cars. In the few short decades following the turn of the century, the automotive industry had become a dominant commercial and economic force in St. Louis.

Building Description

The 1907 Dorris Motor Car Company Building, 4063-4065 Forest Park Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, is a three-story rectangular plan building sited on the northeast corner of the intersection of Forest Park Avenue and South Sarah Street. The building, originally constructed as an auto manufacturing facility, measures 100 feet by 180 feet, and was designed by St. Louis architect, John L. Wees. The Early 20^th Century Commercial Style building has two public facades featuring restrained ornamentation; the rear elevations are simple and utilitarian. In 1909, a third story was added by the Dorris Company to the original 1907 two-story structure establishing its present silhouette.

The load-bearing brick exterior walls rest on a coursed rubble foundation. There are five bays on the south and north elevations and ten bays on the east and west. The building has a flat roof with several sawtooth skylights and a low parapet wall with raised corner piers and slightly raised center sections.

The two main facades facing Forest Park Avenue and South Sarah Street are ornamented while the south and west elevations are simple and utilitarian. The street facades feature pilasters enhanced on the first level with smooth stone caps and rustication. These public facades also have double belt courses at the second and third-floor window heads and a dressed stone belt course at the sill line of the first and second floors. The street facades are further accented with a wood and sheet metal cornice between the second and third floor and a slightly smaller cornice of similar construction and design directly below the tile-coped parapet wall.

The south elevation along Forest Park Avenue features large window openings fitted with glass block on the first floor and aluminum nine-pane windows on the second and third floors. A single-door entrance has been fashioned in the middle of the window nearest South Sarah Street on the first floor and is flanked by glass block.

The building originally fronted on Sarah Street and this west elevation includes four double-wide main doorways. These door openings, currently closed with brick, are distinguished by dressed stone surrounds and segmented jack arches with double keystones and crossettes. The doorway and large window openings on this first floor have been closed in with brick. The window openings of the two remaining floors have been fitted with a combination of nine-pane and six-pane aluminum windows.

The north (rear) elevation is divided into five bays by simple unornamented brick buttresses with at-grade, iron bumpers. The first floor openings are enclosed except for the two west bays which were converted to loading docks. The two upper floors retain their original windows. Each bay has a band of three, three-over-three wood sash windows, except for the second bay from the west corner which has one, small, one-over-one window east-of-center on the second floor and a similar small window and a single full-size three-over-three window on the third floor; these windows are set in openings with low-arched headers. Windows throughout the building have stone lug sills. This elevation also has a steel fire escape on the west corner and a brick chimney with a large metal cap on the east corner. The tile-coped parapet wall is raised over the three center bays and retains the original "DORRIS MOTOR CAR CO." painted sign.

The east elevation is similar to the north elevation; the ten bays are divided by simple brick buttresses and carry a similar variety of windows. Like the north elevation, all first floor openings are closed but the upper floors still retain the original windows. The south three bays have tripartite banded windows with three over three sash; the second bay on this side of the elevation retains a metal fire escape. The remaining bays have three over three windows with arched headers and stone lug sills in a variety of sizes. In general, there are two windows per bay on each floor. The tile-coped parapet on this elevation remains at a constant height except for a section that extends vertically about six feet at the elevator penthouse.

The first-floor area inside the principal elevations had exterior walls finished with plaster and a pressed metal ceiling. The extent of these finishes has not been identified as they are mostly concealed. The most recent use of the first two bays facing onto the Forest Park is an office furniture sales area. The original ceilings are concealed in this area, as are the majority in the rest of the first floor. Some drywall enclosures at the current furniture sales area conceal the exterior wall condition, but at other locations, the original plaster finish can be observed. Cast iron columns on this level are mostly concealed by subsequent construction, but where they can be seen, they have simple flanged capitals similar to those on the second floor. The first floor is subdivided by two main transverse interior masonry walls as well as heavy masonry walls which enclose a smaller room; the original rolling fire door still exists in this room. Numerous frame partitions have been added over time throughout this level. The northeast quadrant of this floor has exposed floor structure above and is used as a loading dock area. A freight elevator is also located in this area.

The second floor contains two main transverse brick walls with limited openings. The cast iron columns extend through this floor and support heavy timber beams on flanged capitals. The joist and sub-floor structure of the third floor is exposed and painted throughout this entire floor. Other than the two walls mentioned above, this floor has an open floor plan. The hardwood floors, which have been repaired and overlaid in many areas, are very worn and pitted. Large window openings dominate the exposed, painted brick masonry exterior walls on three sides and smaller openings with segmental arches extend along the east side.

This third floor, added two years after the original building was completed, also has two main transverse brick masonry walls with limited openings. The window pattern is repeated and the floors are in similar condition. The roof structure overhead was exposed and painted, but currently is mostly covered with insulation board panels. The columns on this level are a combination of cast iron and wood. There are two locations where a king post truss member is used to eliminate the columns between the transverse brick walls. It appears that originally there were three sawtooth skylights; two have been "roofed over' intact; the third was removed, framed in with dimension lumber, and roofed over as a slightly raised area observable from the roof.