Chalmers-Detroit 1908-1924
A car company with many different hyphenated names!
ABOVE: A Chalmers 6-40 in 1915 Photo from: The Detroit Public Library Digital Collection
The story of the Chalmers-Detroit starts out with the owner of the Thomas-Detroit who lived in… Buffalo, NY. In 1906 Erwin Ross Thomas was building a car with a 50 horsepower engine in Buffalo, NY. Thomas was approached by former Olds Motor Works employees, Howard E. Coffin, engineer, and Roy Chapin, salesman, the pair were interested in producing a 40 horsepower car like his in Detroit. Thomas agreed to finance the new company and Thomas-Detroit was created in 1906
Coffin and Chapin liked the design Thomas had, but they did not like the fact that he was located “cross country” in Buffalo. They persuaded the vice president of the National Cash Register Company, Hugh Chalmers, to buy E. R. Thomas out. In 1908 the Chalmers-Detroit company was created. Due to his $76,000 annual salary from NCR Chalmers was able to easily put up the cash.
Chalmers-Detroit was busy building cars in the $1,500 to $2,800 range. In 1909 Coffin and Chapin decided the company needed to produce a 20 horsepower model that would be sold for under $1,000. Chalmers wasn’t very enthusiastic about the idea. The pair sought out another financier and secured the owner of a large department store chain in the Detroit area. J.L. Hudson was happy to back the cheaper car and by the end of 1909 Chalmers-Detroit had built and sold 1,000 20 horsepower cars under the Hudson name.
In 1910 Hudson, along with Coffin and Chapin, bought the Hudson line from Hugh Chalmers. Chalmers found himself the sole owner of the Chalmers-Detroit name and factory. After restructuring the Chalmers Motor Car Company was born.
ABOVE: Chalmers-Detroit from the 2022 Chattanooga Motor Car Festival. Photo by Chris Breeden
The company Chalmers was left with had an extensive race and contest winning record. In 1910 a Chalmers won the Glidden Trophy. In 1912 the company introduced a 6 cylinder car and by 1915 the 6 cylinder would become the only engine available. In 1915 sales would reach 20,000 and racing Chalmers would score a class win at Pike’s Peak and a 24 hour race held at Shepherd’s Bay.
Like so many other car manufacturers the recession that followed the end of WW1 hit Chalmers hard. Hugh Clamers noticed the Maxwell Motor Company across town was suffering too, but not as badly as he was. He leased a part of his property to the Maxwell company. It wasn’t long after this a legal dispute started between the two companies. In 1922, when the dust had finally settled, the two companies had merged into the Maxwell-Chalmers Company.
ABOVE: 1910 Glidden winning Chalmers cars. Photo from: The Detroit Public Library Digital Collection.
Later that year, 1922, Hugh Chalmers was hit with a mortgage foreclosure and a general creditors lawsuit. In a really good deal, for Chalmers, the Maxwell Company bought Hugh out for $1.9 million and agreed to take on all of his debt. This led to further problems for the Maxwell Company and the eventual hiring of Walter Chrysler, fresh from dealing with Willys-Overland, to turn things around. Unfortunately, Maxwell didn’t have its own version of John Willys and the company was gone by 1925. The last cars to bear the Chalmers name were 1924 models made in 1923.
