Stanley Register Online | Cars of Record - Barn Finds! |
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Last
update: 4/29/22 |
chassis 134 engine 34 model (Type A) body runabout | image source - Stanley Museum archives One of the very few remaining first-production, chain-drive Stanleys. Discovered by Edwin Battison and transferred with his estate to the collection of the Franklin Museum. |
chassis 180 engine model (Type B) body solid seat runabout | image source - unknown image source - ConceptCarz Discovered by Fred McKenrick, Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, this car was acquired by nearby collector W. Emmert Swigart. It remain untouched and was sold from the Swigart collection at auction in 2007, in the exact same condition. The high bid was $85,250. The chassis number may be in error, as it is quite low for a 78" wheelbase car. |
chassis 821 engine model C body runabout |
image source - Steam Automobile Club of America This car survived intact and umolested until 2012. Here it is in Mike May's barn just before its sale to Bob Nice. Nice executed a sympathetic restoration; now the car is in Texas. |
chassis 1261 engine 0539 model E body Runabout | image source - unknown John Ray Lyman spied this rare flat-hood, side-tiller car in a barn in Nova Scotia in 1950.
In August he was able to buy it, from its original owner, Eugene Burbridge. He decided the rear seat wasn't correct and replaced it, after consulting with Earle Eckel. By 1958 it was restored and present at the Lakeville steam car meet. Zacheus Cande bought it, and took it on the 1963 Glidden Tour, resulting in one of my favorite Stanley photos. In 1969 it passed to Germany, and today resides at the Chateau Grandson in Switzerland. |
chassis 2101 engine model EX body runabout | image source - Steam Power Quarterly, 1968, Vol. 2 No. 1 Roy Healey restored this car for his Horseless Carriage Museum in Rapid City, SD. It received a magnificent re-restoration in the 1980s at the hands of Samuel Flohr. After its sale at the Al Wiseman auction at Amelia Island in 2007, the car was lost from sight. |
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3887 engine F-849 model F body 5-pass | image source - The Steam Automobile, 1966, Vol. 8 No. 4 Earle Eckel takes a look at Robert L. Lyon's recently-acquired 1908 Model F. Eckel restored the car in the mid-'50s for Lyon and was eventually rewarded with ownership. The car continues today in the same family. |
chassis 3463 engine model K body semi-racer | image source - Antique Automobile, Jan-Feb 1985 Here's
a unique story of a car whose history has been known since it was
built, became a barn find, and traveled through a remarkable full
circle.. Philadelphia Stanley dealer D. Walter Harper purchased the first Model K ever shipped by the factory, perhaps the prototype. It shows unique features not found on the later production Model K's. Harper raced the car on Giant's Despair in 1908, alongside Fred Marriott in a standard production Model K. (Due to its appearance at Giant's Despair, the car was long thought to be a 1908.) In 1910, T. Clarence Marshall, of Yorklyn, Delaware, persuaded Harper to sell him the car. Marshall was a hard driver, and reportedly clocked 5 miles in 4 minutes on a straight stretch of road below Lancaster, PA. He blithely ignored this very light car's small fluid capacities and lack of weather protection, and drove it on a round trip to Virginia. In November 1911, Marshall advertised the car for sale - including a top and windshield. It was eventually pirchased by the Foote brothers in Avondale, a few miles from his home. In 1945, just a few years after Marshall's interest in Stanleys had resumed on a hobby basis, nearby early antique car enthusiast Hyde Ballard asked for his help in acquiring a 30hp Stanley. Marshall remembered the location of this car, which had since been disassembled but never restored. Ballard intently combed the brothers' barn for parts of the car, and came away with much of the unique Model K, including all the lamps but one. Note the distinctive boat-tail with mother-in-law seat, in the upper left of the left-hand photo. The boiler, burner, and engine were gone. Ballard spent the next 35 years restoring the car, carefully matching a well-known photo of it during T. C. Marshall's ownership. He had the help of T. C. Marshall, and, later, of his son, Thomas C. Marshall, Jr., who by that time was himself a recognized Stanley resource. After driving it for a short time, Ballard sold it to Tom Marshall, closing the loop and returning the car to where it had lived over 70 years earlier. It remains today a premier member of the Marshall Collection, cared for by the Friends of Auburn Heights Preserve. Many of the original body parts continue to serve as patterns for an ongoing stream of Model K reproductions. |
chassis 4039 engine 01623 model EX body runabout | image source - Light Steam Power, Jan-Feb 1960 Early Califoria collector B. Paul Moser discovered this car in 1948. The 1917 pickup truck conversion destroyed so much of the body that next owner Dick Philippi's restoration required fabrication of all wood and metalwork except the seat and hood. Philippi sold it to the Gilmore Car Museum in Michigan, where it resides today. |
chassis 4134 engine 01719 model EX body runabout | image source - Bulb Horn, Fall 1960 One
of the most fabled Barn Finds of all - "The Hermit's Stanley."
Yes, it was inside that "shed" when the first picture was taken. On March 19, 1944, a bag containing 35 silver dollars was taken to a place about 10 miles west of Annapolis, MD, to buy a Stanley. Still owned by original purchaser R. L Lang (in derby hat), the car had not run since about 1912, but was entirely complete. After long residence in a museum, the car was restored by James MacDermaid and is now in Idaho. When Lang's residence was cleared after his death, the 35 silver dollars were found in the bag. |
chassis 4573 engine model E2 body | image source - Laren Langguth Not a lot left, but wouldn't we love to run across a scene like this today? Typical deterioration of a long-stored Stanley, especially outside - the wood is gone, the metal parts remain. Astonishingly, not only did it keep that brass headlamp, but its serial number plate stayed with it. Friends Eddie Hausgen and Larue Langguth found this in the early 1950s. Hausgen ended up owning it, even listing it in an antique car register in 1957, but never worked on it. The pile was enentually sold to Langguth, and later into Illinois; its current whereabouts are unknown. |
chassis 4608 engine 02052 model E2 body runabout | image source - Smogless Days In 1940, John P. West discovered this car in a deserted stable on Cape Cod. He restored it and drove it for many year, eventually delivering it into the careful hands of the current owner. Today it resides in Vermont and is driven strongly and regularly on northeast steam tours. |
chassis 4752 engine U131 model R body roadster | image source - Jay Williams The barn in this case belonged to Mervin Allatt, seen in this 1955 photo securing the car to the front of the trailer. Allatt would have, himself, pulled the car from another barn, as he was an inveterate Stanley hunter in the 1940s and '50s. The other man pictured, George Schieffelin, restored the car, added a 3rd seat, and operated it for many years. His widow, Laurie Graham Schieffelin operated it after his death, and finally donated it to the Frick Art & Historical Center in Pittsburgh, PA. |
chassis 4031 engine model 62 body Runabout | image source - Steam Power Quarterly, '68, v2#1 Fabled Stanley technician Maynard Leighton found this car in Ridgefield, CT in August, 1966. He restored it to his usual high standard, and attached a serial number tag that was on hand. The number was probably originally affixed to a 1908 car. In the first decade of the 2000s it was on display at the Boothbay Railway Museum, and it remains in Leighton's family. |
chassis 6350 engine 6-812 model 63 body demi-t | image source - Steam Power Quarterly, '68, v2#1 Another one found by Mervin Allatt. He owned it as early as 1941. Passing through several other owners, it was restored and now lives in Colorado. Its restoration won an AACA Senior award in 2000. |
chassis 6447 engine 7-779 model 76 body 5-pass | image source - Brent Campbell This photo was taken in the 1950s when Glenn Gould was extracting these remains of a Model 76 from a barn in Tamworth, NH. It had been the parts donor for home-made steam hot rod - the Alan Bemis car mentioned by Stanley Ellis on p. 13 of Smogless Days. The Bemis family farm was in South Tamworth, NH, where this photo was taken. It was later restored by Bob Garlock, and as of 1996 was located in Wyoming.. |
chassis 6714 engine model 88 body mtn wagon | image source - Horseless Carriage Gazette, May 1944 Shown in collector Lindley Bothwell's barn in 1944, this Mountain Wagon has passed through many other hands, been restored, and is now in Texas. I thought this may have been the earliest known picture of a coffin-nose car carrying a Stanley script, which the factory was not known to use. But a picture of another car from about 1910 shows one, although smaller in scale. |
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6789 engine 8-145 model 87 body 7-pass | image source - Marshall Collection at Auburn Heights Jerry Meixner found this car in Minnesota in the early 1950s. He was known to be a story-teller... One version of his discovery had it that he learned of it through a newspaper article which described how the owners of the junkyard where it resided had attempted to cause the boiler to explode for entertainment purposes, but failed. He restored it, and it was sold by his estate to its Washington owner in 2011, who showed it at the Hershey Fall Meet of that year. |
chassis 6831 engine 7725 model 76 body 5-pass | image source - Horseless Carriage Gazette, Sep-Oct 1957 George R. Read discovered this car in a shed behind Fort Seward in northern California. He restored it, and after passing through several other owners, including Harrah's, it is now back on the west coast. |
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7080 engine 6-462 model 64 body roadster | image source - StanleySteamers.com After resting for 50 years, this car was brought back to life in its original condition. Since that time it has been completely restored, and is driven in tours on the west coast. |
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7610 engine 6-1266 model 607 body touring | image source - Don Nelson A Barney Find? The ubiquitous Carl Amsley extracted this one from the fabled Barney Pollard collection. Here it is on its way from Amsley's to Don Nelson's house in the mid-'80s; Don restored it. It then went to England, where it still resides. |
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16177 engine model 725 body 5-pass | image source - Bulb Horn, Winter 1960 Paul Bourdon acquired this car in 1945 with very low mileage but considerable storage damage. He kept it for 40 years before restoring it. Today it is still in the Bourdon family. |
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16305 engine model 826 body mtn wgn | image source - Pat Farrell Even in 2009, never-restored Stanleys could be pulled from barns. This came from one of the most famous barns of all, that of the legendary Packard Brothers. One of the last Mountain Wagons ever built, it was used as a work truck in their lumber business. It has passed through several other hands and remains unrestored. |
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17292 engine model 728 body touring | image source - Eric Gleason This one appears to be a backyard find. Imagine throwing back the tarp and finding a Model 728 Stanley... Ray Nelson of N. Hollywood, CA discovered this car some time after 1953 and sold it to Wayne Nutting, who restored it. Nutting drove it until 1969, when he lost his life in it due to a tragic fire resulting from the mishandling of a spare propane bottle. The car was driven from the scene and repaired, and is now in Kentucky. This unusual view shows the long tube, normally hidden under the car, which carries the syphon line. |
chassis 20163 engine model 735 body touring | image source - personal collection On July 7, 1955, Stanley broker Glenn Gould delivered this car to Donald G. Ferry in West Hartford, Connecticut. Gould had found it in the barn of George Hildreth, early Stanley dealer in Topsham, Maine, Hildreth's barn heard earlier given up #17225, whose restoration was described in George Woodbury's The Story of a Stanley Steamer. Ferry removed the body, restored the chassis, and installed a brand-new Harry Peterson boiler and burner combination. At that point he abandoned the project, and in the 1980's Don Nelson bought it, restored the body, and got the car running. Carl Amsley eventually picked it up and sold it to Canada, current whereabouts unknown. |
chassis 21133 engine model 735E body roadster | image source - Steam Power Quarterly, 1967, Vol. 1 #4 Ed Judge of Lansing Michigan found this car and restored it with a water tube boiler. It went through two more owners and was acquired in 1977 by its current Ohio owners, who gave it a magnificent second restoration. (Possible caption - "If you clean out the rest o' the asbesto', this will do fine to hold my breakfast.") |
image source - Jay Williams And finally, a wonderfully evocative early barn scene. Notice several Stanleys and miscellaneous Stanley parts in view. This is Mervin Allatt's barn in the late 1930s, and the cars had no doubt been extracted from other barns by tireless Stanley hunter Allatt himself. |
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