| Home | | | Past Issues | |
 |
|
|
|
 |
September 9, 2004
• Cruising in style in a Studebaker Cruising in style in a Studebaker Becket family collects these classic American autos Hidden in the woods of deepest Becket, off an obscure dirt road, is an unprepossessing red barn filled with treasure. The trove isn't the usual silver, gold or precious jewels. This treasure appears in the form of Studebakers. "What’s a Studebaker?" many below a certain rather advanced age may ask.
Studebaker is a classic American automobile. The company went out of business in 1966, unable to compete with giants like Ford and General Motors and the rising suns of Toyota and Honda. The firm was founded by brothers Henry and Clem as a blacksmith shop in 1852 and grew into the largest wagon factory in the world during the Civil War, eventually making many of the famous Conestoga wagons which carried the pioneers across the plains. Experimenting with automobiles as early as 1896, the company began manufacturing cars in 1902, selling its first electric runabout five days before the firm's 50th anniversary. Corporate lore holds that inventor Thomas Edison bought the second one, which he owned for 23 years. Studebaker soon shifted to the production of gasoline-powered cars and trucks, operating in South Bend, Ind., where the Studebaker National Museum is located today. The 15 Studebakers in the 4-year-old, heated and well-lighted barn are the property of Becket natives and current residents, 50-something brothers Bill and Sean Mulholland, their sister, Kathy, and her husband, Jack Rodhouse. Bill is the acting dean of Lifetime Learning at Berkshire Community College; Sean is an engineer at LB Corporation in Lee; Kathy is a buyer at General Dynamics in Pittsfield, and Jack works in finance for BAE Systems in Cheshire, Conn.
The oldest car in the collection is a 1931 roadster, and the most valuable is most likely a 1957 Golden Hawk, which the family estimates would bring more than $30,000 at auction. There is also a 1963 Avanti, which won first place in the national Studebaker Driver's Club meet in Charlotte, N.C., earlier this summer. Why so many Studebakers? "It's like Lay’s potato chips," says the pert, blonde Kathy Rodhouse. "You can’t have just one." "It's a sickness," her husband Jack adds, and brother Bill shakes his head in mock wonderment. "They multiply like gerbils," he says. The Studebaker tradition goes back longer in the Mulholland family than 1983 when they started collecting. "My mother's neighbor had one in her yard, and he wanted it out of there in the worst way,” Bill says. However, in 1933 when the siblings’ father graduated from college, he bought his parents their first car: a Studebaker, naturally. Now the extended family is involved.
"There are more people involved than really want to be," mumbles Sean's 21-year-old son, Bill, as he works on one of the well preserved VW bugs also in the barn. "They really made some very innovative cars," says Jack Rodhouse. Jack cites the development of the first sliding station wagon roof, which has subsequently been appropriated and adapted by General Motors. Maine attorney Jeff Rosenblatt, 56, visiting in Massachusetts, waxes nostalgic. "My first car was a 1951 Studebaker with the bullet nose. When you looked at it, you couldn't tell if it was coming or going," he remembers. "It's the most popular marque of any collector car," Kathy Rodhouse says. The family estimates that there are more than 21,000 members of the Studebaker Driver’s Club in the U.S. and Canada, and they should know. Jack and Kathy are coordinating the Northeast Zone Meet & Eastern States Meet of the SDC on the grounds of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge on Saturday, Sept. 11. The meet is hosted by The Ocean Bay Chapter of the organization, headquartered in Dartmouth, MA. There will be about 100 Studebakers and Avantis on display, beginning at noon. There is no charge to the public. Seven of the barn treasures will be at the show, along with other representatives of the company's long history, motoring to the Berkshires from as far away as Maryland and Ontario. "It is a driver’s club," emphasizes Kathy Rodhouse. The oldest car expected is a 1911 Flanders. Although some cars are not judged, most are entered into 22 categories, ranging from "Electric, 4-Cylinder & E Series, 1902-28" through “Coupes & Hawks (C&K), 1953-61” to trucks. (A former Studebaker plant makes the Humvees for the U.S. Army.) There’s a complex 400 point judging system which deals with almost every aspect of the car from paint job to undercarriage, but Jack Rodhouse admits that no, the judges “don’t play the radio” Awards will be presented at a Saturday night banquet at Eastover Resort in Lenox, and on Sunday many of the cars will be touring Berkshire County's scenic roads, beginning at 9:30 a.m. at the Yankee Inn in Lenox, which will serve as home base for the meet. Next year the national meet will be in Spokane, Wash., and about every five years more than 1,000 vehicles gather in South Bend. There is much to be said for the popularity and widespread appeal of these classic American treasures, and that’s more easily appreciated if you remember the Studebaker company motto: "Always give more than you promise." |
 |
  |
|
© 2010 New England Newspapers, Inc.
|
)
)
