In 1895, eccentric and visionary entrepreneur John Brisben Walker had his
Cosmopolitan magazine sponsor the second automobile race ever held in the United States. Walker had long been enamored with transportation innovations, reportedly offering his acquaintances, the
Wright brothers, room on his estate in
Irvington, New York, for their work. After one of the steam-powered cars made by the
Stanley Brothers had set a new speed record of 27.4 miles per hour in November 1898, he bought the Stanley Brothers company and patents for $250,000 in early summer 1899. a fellow Irvington resident who made his fortune producing and selling asphalt used to pave roads around the country. They set-up the Automobile Company of America Walker purchased parts of the former
Ambrose Kingsland estate Manufacturing machinery was purchased and the new
factory at Kingsland Point produced its first Mobile Steam carriage on March 7, 1900. Advertising claimed it to be the largest automobile factory in the world. by driving one up
Pikes Peak to a height of 11,000 feet (but not to the top of the 14,115-foot-high peak), presumably the highest altitude ever reached by an automobile until then. In August the following year, one of his cars, driven by others, did reach the top. These stunts, however, were ridiculed by the Colorado newspapers in articles claiming that "the west is not yet prepared for the flood of automobile travel that Mr. Walker promises to let loose in the mountains." Advertising for the Mobile Company was taken out in most major magazines, and as Walker was the publisher of
The Cosmopolitan, the Mobile Company of America featured prominently in it. Mobile's new factory was expected to produce 20 steam carriages weekly. By the fall of 1901, production was averaging 5 steam carriages a week. under the caption "Why It Was Sold". In pertinent part, it read: …a sudden change in public favor from steam to the French gasoline car left the company with branch houses from Boston to San Francisco and losses exceeding $1,700,000. Mr. Walker personally assumed the indebtedness of the Mobile Company of America, and not only paid it off in full, but returned to every shareholder the amount of his investment, with interest. This action required the sale of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, Kingsland Point, and some other properties.With some short interruptions, the site of Walker's automobile plant would continue to be used to build cars until June 1996, when
General Motors finally stopped production of cars there and closed its
North Tarrytown Assembly plant. == Gallery ==