LOCAL HISTORY
RAPID MOTORS AND THE GRABOWSKY BROTHERS
DETROIT PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS / NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY COLLECTION
DETROIT BEGINNINGS William Grabowsky, a Jewish immigrant from Prussia, arrived in the United States in around 1860. In old IRS tax records for the 1860s he is listed as a “peddler class 3” – a door-todoor peddler – living in the small town of Birmingham, Michigan. By 1870 he and his wife Rosalina had moved to Detroit, where they raised six children – two of whom would make automotive history. In Detroit, William ran a millinery shop at 170 Michigan Avenue, where he offered “a $5 hat for $4” and “feathers and flowers cheaper than anywhere else in Michigan!” In 1870 his first son, Morris, was born, followed in 1874 by his second son, Max. Both would develop an interest in bicycles, motors and “anything electrical”. In 1894 Max Grabowsky opened a shop at 380 Woodward Avenue, where he is noted to have worked as a “locksmith, gunsmith, bicycle repairer and doorbell hanger”. It was described as being “a small, but well equipped machine shop”. An advertisement for the business declared: “We are experts and repair anything repairable.” Morris worked as a clerk at the shop at times, but also took on several other jobs during these years including those of post office clerk, travel agent and hardware salesman.
M1 Concourse is built on land that has impeccable automotive heritage, as part two of our story of the historic site reveals WORDS C A R O L EG B O
OPPOSITE The Grabowskys’ first commercial ‘truck’ of 1901 had a 10mph top speed and a capacity of one ton.
M1 MOMENTUM
THE GRABOWSKY MOTOR VEHICLE COMPANY Max’s repair business was successful, but he was interested in more than repairing things – he was interested in designing them. His real passion became gasoline engines and commercial motor cars. He had studied early commercial vehicles, and noted that for the most part they were simply pleasure wagons that had been modified to hold delivery boxes. The wear and tear of business was often too much for these vehicles – and Max Grabowsky was very interested in designing something specifically made for commercial use. Therefore, in 1900, he and Morris formed the Grabowsky Motor Vehicle Company in Detroit, and began to build a prototype for a commercial ‘truck’. It had a single-cylinder horizontal engine, a two-speed planetary transmission and chain drive, with a seat over the engine. It had a top speed of a whopping 10mph and a carrying capacity of one ton. The brothers finished this first truck in 1901, but upon testing discovered it was under powered. Not ones to give up, they began building a second truck, this time using a 15hp two-cylinder horizontally opposed engine with a drivetrain similar to that of their first effort. Essentially it was little more than a seat, an engine and a frame. Max described their manufacturing of 115
