Modern Tool Company, also known as the People's Market House, is a historic building located at

Erie Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...

Erie County, Pennsylvania Erie County is the northernmost county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,876. Its county seat is Erie. The county was created in 1800 and later organized in 1803. The county is part of the Nort ...

. It is a large eclectic U-shaped, brick building built in stages between 1895 and 1928. The building measures 218 feet by 330 feet. The earliest section was built in 1895, as the People's Market House. It is stories and has a large central pavilion with flanking two-story wings and a gable roof. The State Street side was built in five sections between 1916 and 1924. The northern block was added about 1928. It features

Palladian window Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Republic of Venice, Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetr ...

s and a corner turret. The original building housed a

public market A marketplace, market place, or just market, is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from ...

until 1902, after which it was leased to the Modern Tool Company, a machine tool manufacturer. ''Note:'' This includes It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1987.

Payne-Modern automobile

Calvin N. Payne founded Modern Tool Company in 1898. From 1904 he and his son Frank experimented with automobiles . Gilbert Loomis, who previously ran the Loomis Auto Car Company, joined Modern Tool in development of a car in 1906. However, he quickly left the company and joined the

Speedwell Motor Car Company The Speedwell Motor Car Company was a Brass Era car, Brass Era American automobile manufacturing company established by Pierce Schenck, Pierce Davies Schenck that produced cars from 1907 to 1914. The Great Dayton Flood of 1913 greatly damaged th ...

. In 1907 the production of automobiles began with the

marque A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

name of Payne-Modern. The Payne-Modern was offered as a

four-cylinder The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized. Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categoriz ...

or a

six-cylinder A straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balanc ...

; both engines were

air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. Air-cooled designs are far simpler than their liquid-cooled ...

overhead valve An overhead valve engine, abbreviated (OHV) and sometimes called a pushrod engine, is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with flathead (or "sidevalve") engines, where the v ...

units built in a "V" configuration. The

transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...

was patented with four speeds forward and reverse.

Suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Car suspension * Cell suspension or suspension culture, in biology * Guarded suspension, a software design pattern in concurrent programming suspending a method call and the calling ...

was novel with semi-elliptic springs placed at a 15-degree angle with the outboard ends above the

frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

, the inside ends below. There were no outside hand levers on the Payne-Modern, the gearshift lever was located on the

steering wheel A steering wheel (also called a driving wheel, a hand wheel, or simply wheel) is a type of steering control in vehicles. Steering wheels are used in most modern land vehicles, including all mass-production automobiles, buses, light and hea ...

. Final drive was by

shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around whi ...

. With runabout or touring bodies, the four-cylinder was priced at $2.200 () while the six-cylinder was priced at $4,000, . Likely the complexity of the automobiles hampered its production and the Payne-Modern was discontinued in 1908. File:1907 Payne-Modern Advertisement.jpg, 1907 Payne-Modern advertisement in Cycle and Automobile Journal File:1908 Payne-Modern advertisement.jpg, 1908 Payne-Modern picture in Cycle and Automobile Journal It is unknown if any cars are currently extant.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures completed in 1928 Buildings and structures in Erie, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Erie County, Pennsylvania Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Brass Era vehicles 1900s cars Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Pennsylvania Cars introduced in 1907 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1907 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1908