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Stacy Building

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Coordinates: 42°6′17″N 72°35′35″W / 42.10472°N 72.59306°W / 42.10472; -72.59306
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Stacy Building
Stacy Building
Stacy Building is located in Massachusetts
Stacy Building
Stacy Building is located in the United States
Stacy Building
LocationSpringfield, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°6′17″N 72°35′35″W / 42.10472°N 72.59306°W / 42.10472; -72.59306
Built1893
ArchitectFrancis R. Richmond
MPSMetro Center Springfield MRA
NRHP reference No.83000768[1]
Added to NRHPMay 27, 1983

The Stacy Building is a historic building at 41-43 Taylor Street in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the district of Metro Center known as the Club Quarter. On September 20, 1893, Springfielders Charles and Frank Duryea road-tested the first-ever American-built, gasoline-powered car in Springfield, which they had built at the Stacy Building.[2] The first Duryea Motor Wagons were all built by hand at the Stacy Building on Taylor Street in Springfield. Despite the September 20 road-test on Howard Bemis's Springfield farm, the Springfield Republican newspaper did get the story until the Duryea brothers' 2nd public road-test on November 10, 1893.[3][4]

In 1895, the Duryea Motor Wagon won America's first-ever road race - a 54-mile race from Chicago to Evanston, Illinois, beating out European companies like Daimler Benz. Following this, demand for Duryea automobiles soared. In 1896, the Duryea Motor Wagon Company became the first company to manufacture and sell gasoline-powered automobiles. The Duryea Brothers produced thirteen cars by hand in the company's first year - all at the Stacy Building. The company's motto was "there is no better motorcar." Immediately, Duryeas were purchased by luminaries of the time, including George Vanderbilt.[2] Two months after buying one of the first, manufactured cars - New York City motorist Henry Wells hit a bicyclist with his new Duryea; the rider suffered a broken leg, Wells spent a night in jail, and the United States' first traffic accident was recorded.[2]

Outside of the Stacy Building - in what is now (as then) Springfield's Club Quarter - next to what is currently the popular Alumni Club at 90 Worthington Street, there is a model of an 1893 Duryea Motor Wagon - mere feet from the Stacy Building, where the Duryea Brothers invented and manufactured their history-changing machine.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c "The Brothers Who Invented America's First Gas-Powered Car".
  3. ^ "Register's Log".
  4. ^ Worlds Greatest Cars Archived 2009-07-20 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ^ "Untitled Document". Archived from the original on 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2011-06-26.
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