Pic-A-Day (66) Albert Mach Fine Art 1899 Crouch & Walker Lee Crouch Portrait.

[Albert Mach]

Pic-A-Day (66) Albert Mach Fine Art.
1899 Crouch & Walker Lee Crouch Portrait.This was the first auto in Baltimore, MD! It was also made in Baltimore.
This is a General interest post for auto aficionados sharing a pictorial history over the decades.
I hope you enjoy the educational - historical information!...
It was seen at the 2014 auction at the AACA Fall Meet at Hershey.

1899 Crouch
Baltimore’s First Car
Several histories:

8 hp, twin-cylinder double-acting steam engine, tiller steering, solid front axle with a transverse semi-elliptic spring, live rear axle with full-elliptic leaf springs and single chain drive, and differential brake. Wheelbase: 62 in.
In 1899, machinist W.E. Crouch built himself a steam-powered automobile in New Brighton, Pennsylvania. It is believed that he built three automobiles, with the first two probably used to provide parts for the third, which was made in Baltimore. That final vehicle, shown here, was remarkable in the details of its construction, as it included an advanced enclosed crankcase with a jackshaft and an offset differential and a steam engine that is believed to have been converted from one built in Baltimore for marine use. The body was built of angle iron and clad in aluminum.
During World War II, this third, final, and sole extant Crouch was discovered in the basement of its original factory and sold by scrappers to Ed Hook. It later passed to Henry Gottshalk, who would own it for many years, and then it passed to well-known AACA member and past president Sterling Walsh. Mr. Walsh owned the Crouch for three decades before selling it to the present owner, a prominent steam car expert and mechanic who oversaw a painstaking restoration. The owner notes that the steam car was restored to a high standard, while still maintaining the integrity of the original construction. The restoration was a multiple AACA award winner, which includes a National Award in Philadelphia in 2011.

This automobile was built by the Crouch Automobile Co. located at the corner of North Ave. and Oak St. in Baltimore, MD.
Mr. W. Lee Crouch, a machinist, became interested in self propelled transportation and built a gasoline powered car in 1894 while living in New Brighton, Pennsylvania.
It was reported in “The Sun” in 1899 that Mr. Crouch was relocating to Baltimore with the idea of “interesting local capalists in a project of manufacturing automobiles”. The auto he bought to Baltimore was housed at the home of Mr. D. A. Clark at 2021 Maryland Ave. who would become president of the new company.
A suitable facility for the new company was found at the corner of Oak avenue and North Street.
An add placed in the July 1899 issue of “Horseless Age” announces the company is taking orders and has an auto available for test drives.
In November an article in “The Automobile” shows the “perfected” Crouch. It is believed this car is the one featured.
The Horseless Age of February 1900 announces the Crouch Automobile Co. was being placed in receivership. It states “they were heavily indebted and that the concern had no adequate backing and was mismanaged.”
On March 7th 1900 it was announced that the Columbia Motor and Mfg Co. of Washington, DC purchased the Crouch Company.
It is unknown how many cars the company produced. This car is serial number 3 and may have been built from cars 1 and 2 as they continued to improve their product. It was found in the furnace room of the abandoned factory during WW II when items were being gathered for the scrap drive.
Fortunately a local auto enthusiast saw the car being pushed to the local crusher and if postponed, it was lost forever. He paid $20 twice the actual value.
As you look over this car note the …and iron work. Notice how the front axel is made in sections, also note the iron … supporting the springs.

At a time when most bodies were built from wood, this car is constructed from angle iron and clad in aluminum. It is a transition from buggy to auto.
As you look at this piece of Baltimore history just close your eyes for a second and try to picture the summer of 1899 and how exciting it must have been seeing Mr. Crouch driving his horseless carriage.

Mr. W. Lee Crouch was born January 23, 1865 in Clark County, Kentucky where he attained a high school education and later learned the machinist trade in Cincinnati at the Mechanic’s Institute and apprenticed under a William F. Leard.
Mr. Leard later opened a machining business in New Brighton, Pennsylvania and put Crouch in charge of it when Crouch was only nineteen years old. He remained with the company for five years before moving on to The Standard Horse Shoe Nail Works in New Brighton as assistant superintendent. During the next 1 1/2 years here he worked on the design of a gasoline-fueled engine for a “horseless carriage.
This engine developed into a line of natural gas fueled stationary engines of which several thousand were built by the Pierce-Crouch Engine Co. of New Brighton. Crouch was a partner in this company.
He built his first auto in 1894, a gasoline powered vehicle, while operating this plant.
Traveling between New Brighton and Baltimore, Maryland he and others formed the Crouch Automobile Manufacturing and Transportation Co. of Baltimore.
At this point a steam-powered auto designed by him was put into production around 1899. The exact number of vehicles produced is not of record some say 3 others estimate that 25 to 30 might have been built. In 1900 the company was sold to Columbia Motor and Manufacturing Co.
His last venture into a complete automobile was in 1914 in Circleville, Ohio, which he described as a “light car, which possessed some novel features”. This car never went to production and only one unit was built.
As of September 18, 1997, the only known existing Crouch car, an 1899 Crouch steamer, built in Baltimore, is owned by a collector in Hampstead, MD.
He died Sept. 9, 1932 Canal Winchester Fairfield County Ohio
Burial:
Dayton Memorial Park Cemetery
Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, USA

[Albert Mach]

It Sold for $93,500 at Hershey in 2014.

[Albert Mach]

I don't know what it sold for. The auction was the next day and I was at the main event seeing some friends, and taking pics!

I was especially excited to see the first auto in Baltimore and the history of it.

[Pamela Hirschhorn]

This is an excellent example of all of the one off and low production autos which tried to become a part of the exciting, new technology at the turn of the last century. Out of curiosity, what did it sell for? Thanks for the story.