COMPANY

The Pierce-Arrow brand name was one of the most recognized names in the automobile world. The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company also had a great reputation with plenty of respect attached to its name. Pierce-Arrows was based out of Buffalo, New York, where it produced some of the best cars in the industry for a period of 38 years.

For 20 of those years, the company made cars for the White House and you could find the brand anywhere where other rich and powerful people were. Pierce-Arrow even sold cars to royal families in Belgium, Greece and Japan and several other countries. Thousands of congressmen, businessmen, entertainers, ambassadors and other elite individuals also chose Pierce-Arrow for transportation. In fact, Pierce-Arrow was the brand choice for an impressive list of individuals including Orville Wright, Ginger Rogers, William Howard Taft, Charlie Chaplin and many others.

The Pierce-Arrow Company started out as the George N. Pierce Company, which made household items like birdcages and iceboxes. The company ventured into cars with the deDion powered Motorette. The Pierce vehicles quickly became large and expensive cars and by the end of the first decade of the 20th century, they were famous for their style. The Pierce-Arrow vehicles became known for their reliability, quality and overall appearance.

When World War I took over Europe, the Pierce-Arrow vehicles matured into three different models that would help to define the brand for the coming decade. The Pierce-Arrow model 66 was the top of the line due to its size and engine. During the Great War, the company also sent hundreds of trucks overseas to help in the war effort.

As the country entered into the 1920s, Pierce-Arrow also began a new age. The vehicles began to come off the line with embroidered upholstery and elegance including gold trimmed interiors and many other features. Most of the vehicles were aimed towards the upper end of the market, but the Series 80 and Series 81 were for the larger general market.

The Great Depression took a big toll on luxury cars as a whole. Although during that time, Ab Jenkins set new speed records with a Pierce-Arrow car in Utah, overall, the industry faltered. In an effort to keep the company alive, the final Pierce-Arrow cars were built in the late 1930s as the company began to enter the travel trailer market.

Over its years of fine history, Pierce-Arrow also made many other products such as bicycles, motorcycles and heavy-duty trucks for commercial use. Though the brand is most often recognized in terms of luxury vehicles, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company actually had much more behind its name.