Kalamazoo: A Brief History of its "Checkered" Automotive Past.

What do Checker Cabs, Gibson Guitars, and celery have in common? At one time or another each was a signature product of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Guitars and vegetables aside, while it may be Detroit that everyone hails as the Motor City, Kalamazoo has a rich automotive history all its own, and Checker Cab is just one of the companies that called it home.

While the Checker Cab name is still familiar today, other companies that were part of Kalamazoo's growth are much less so. One example is the Kalamazoo Cart Company. In the 1880's they developed a single passenger buggy known as the ACME, a name that predates auto loans and auto manufacturers, that they said was constructed by "…only skilled mechanics whose craftsmanship cannot be surpassed." But the Cart Company was just one of the wagon and buggy producers in the region.

In 1886, the Michigan Buggy Company owned a large factory in a predominantly industrial section of town on the north side. This facility, located at the southeast corner of Porter and East Willard produced as many as 47,000 buggies, wagons, and other horse-drawn vehicles, even after the horseless carriage had already been popularized – as late as 1887. Twelve years later, in 1909, Michigan Buggy launched the MIGHTY MICHIGAN – its first automobile.

Though Michigan Buggy ultimately failed in 1913, the precedent had been set: Kalamazoo companies were making new cars – even when their primary business would seem to be unrelated. The Shakespeare Company, which specialized in innovative fishing tackle, converted its factory in 1918 and build carburetors as part of the war effort.

At about the same time, the Barley Motor Car Company, which originally operated as the Streater Motor Car Company in Streator, Illinois, moved production to Michigan, where it took over a factory formerly belonging to the Kalamazoo Buggy Company. Barley's first offering was a car called the Roamer, which was named after a popular race-horse of the era, and modeled on the Rolls Royce.

Marketed from day one as "America's Smartest Car," the initial model, the Roamer Six, was a four-door touring car sporting a six-cylinder, 24 horsepower Continental engine. Over the years from 1918 to 1929, several more models debuted, and in 1921 a Roamer that was armed with a Rochester-Duesenberg engine set records for speed at distances ranging from one to five miles, at Daytona Beach, and subsequent advertisements read, "America's Smartest Car Makes America's Fastest Mile."

In 1924, a corporate reorganization led to Roamer Motor Car Company becoming incorporated in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, under the direction of George P. Wigginton, with production being moved north of the border, while the Kalamazoo factory continued to operate under the Barley name, though the Barley cars were less than successful. Eventually, the cars were rebranded under the name Pennant, fitted with Buda 4-cylinder engines, and put into direct competition with Checker Cab, but even with that change, the company ceased operation before the end of 1925.

Checker Cab, on the other hand, ended up being one of Kalamazoo's big success stories. Established in 1922 by Morris Markin, Checker Motors Corporation was a subcontractor that was responsible for the creation and manufacture of the iconic American taxi, though Markin also ran an actual cab company alongside the production entity.

Until 1959, Checker cars were built almost exclusively for the commercial livery (taxi cab) business, though personal-use vehicles would be built by special request. During the 1930's the company expanded their product line to include trailers built for Sears-Roebuck and truck cabs built for Ford, as well as the production of four prototype jeeps that featured four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering. In World War II, Checker continued working with the Army, supplying tank recovery vehicles, tank retrieval trailers, and other sorts of trailers as well. Another Checker model was the Aerobus, an extended car built on a stretch wheelbase that allowed each row of seats to have its own doors. The Aerobus was used by vacation resorts, and frequently seen at airports and train stations.

Checker stopped producing cars in the 1960's though their iconic logo and the taxi company that was originally part of the same umbrella live on even today.
Kalamazoo, of course, is still part of the automotive world, as well as being a major source of guitars, bedding plants, and paper.

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Page modified 5/23/2008