The Harvard was a

Brass Era car The Brass Era is an American term for the early period of automotive manufacturing, named for the prominent brass fittings used during this time for such features as lights and radiators. It is generally considered to encompass 1896 through 19 ...

built in

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

and

Hudson Falls, New York Hudson Falls (formerly Sandy Hill) is a village located in Washington County, New York, United States. The village is in the southwest of the town of Kingsbury, on U.S. Route 4. Hudson Falls is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical ...

and later in

Hyattsville, Maryland Hyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. It is an urban suburb of Washington, D.C. The population was 21,187 at the 2020 United States census. History Before Europeans reached the area, the upper Anacostia ...

over the course of the period 1915 to 1921. After selling his

Herreshoff Motor Company Herreshoff may refer to: * Herreshoff (surname), a German surname * Herreshoff (automobile), any of three models of automobile built by the U.S. manufacturer Herreshoff Motor Company, 1909–14 * ''Herreshoff Bull's Eye'' * Herreshoff Castle, an un ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, Charles Herreshoff teamed up with Northrup R. Holmes, who had already founded the Herreshoff Light Car Company as a Troy dealership for the previous Herreshoff car. Herreshoff brought with him the

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

for his new

light car The term light car is used in Great Britain since the early part of the 20th century for an automobile less than 1.5 litres engine capacity. In modern car classification this term would be roughly equivalent to a subcompact car. There are numero ...

that he had been working on while still in Detroit. Plans were laid for production in Troy, with an eye on the export market (especially

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

). Herreshoff abruptly departed town for

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, taking his prototype with him. Holmes then approached Theodore Litchfield to be business partners, as Holmes still had the plans for the car in his office safe. Litchfield was a Troy mechanic and the dealer for the Herff-Brooks automobile. Holmes and Litchfield formed a new company, the Pioneer Motor Car Company to manufacture the newly christened Harvard auto. The company name was quickly changed to the Harvard-Pioneer Motor Car Company. The cars featured a small four-

cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

Model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

engine, and was one of the first and maybe ''the'' first in the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

with a covered compartment for concealing the

spare tire A spare tire (or stepney in some countries) is an additional tire (or tyre - see spelling differences) carried in a motor vehicle as a replacement for one that goes flat, has a blowout, or has another emergency. ''Spare tire'' is generally a ...

. Another distinguishing feature of the Harvard was that the

headlight A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the device itself and ''headlight'' is the term for t ...

s were attached to mounts directly bolted to the

radiator A radiator is a heat exchanger used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

shell. In early 1916, Holmes partnered with local auto dealer George N. Nay to use the latter's facilities in neighboring Hudson Falls. Assembly of the Harvard now took place on the top floor of the Adirondack Motor Car Company, of which Nay was the owner. The plant supervisor was one Walter Bulow, previously of

Lozier The Lozier Motor Company was a Brass Era car, brass era producer of Luxury car, luxury automobiles in the United States. The company produced automobiles from 1900 to 1918, in Plattsburgh, New York and from 1910, at Detroit, Michigan. History Lo ...

and American Fiat. Walter redesigned the Harvard in 1919, giving it a more rounded radiator shell. In October 1919, the company name was once again changed, this time to the Harvard Motor Car Company. Not long after the name change, a group of businessmen bought the entire operation and transferred it to Hyattsville, Maryland. Several of the Bulow-designed automobiles were built in Maryland, before the company finally succumbed to the depression of the early 1920s.Kimes, p.681.

Notes

References

Kimes, Beverly Rae and Clark Jr, Henry Austin. "Standard Catalog of American Cars: 1805-1942." (Third Edition). Iola, WI: Krause Publications. 1996. {{DEFAULTSORT:Harvard (Automobile) Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Brass Era vehicles Motor vehicle manufacturers based in New York (state) Hyattsville, Maryland American companies established in 1915 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1915 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1921 1915 establishments in New York (state) 1920s disestablishments in Maryland Defunct manufacturing companies based in Maryland Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York (state)