THE NEW YORK 
 HOME OF THE 
 
 PEERLESS 
 
iEx HtbrtB 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 When you leave, please leave this book 
 
 Because it has been said 
 "Ever'thing comes t' him who waits 
 
 Except a loaned book." 
 
 OLD YORK LIBRARY — OLD YORK FOUNDATION 
 
 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/newyorkhomeofpeeOOpeer 
 
THE NEW YORK HOME 
 OF THE PEERLESS 
 
 1760 BROADWAY 
 
 THE PEERLESS 
 MOTOR CAR COMPANY 
 OF NEW YORK 
 
CLASSIC 
 Tl 
 215" 
 .P5 
 
 Copyright, igio, by The Peerless Motor Car Company of New York 
 
THE NEW YORK HOME OF THE 
 PEERLESS 
 
 JL Broadway just below Fifty- Seventh Street, 
 stands a ten story terra cotta building, owned and 
 occupied by the Peerless Motor Car Company of 
 New York. The first floor is occupied by the 
 Peerless salesroom, while the nine upper floors are 
 devoted to various workrooms appropriate to a 
 high class motor car establishment. 
 
 It is chiefly to acquaint owners of Peerless cars, 
 in and around New York, with the service which 
 this establishment affords, that this book is issued. 
 
 The satisfaction of having ready access to an 
 establishment where every need of a motor car can 
 be promptly cared for is best appreciated by those 
 who have found the absence of such service a source 
 of annoyance and delay, and have afterwards known 
 
 blocks south of Columbus Circle, on 
 
THE NEW YORK HOME OE THE PEERLESS 
 
THE NEW YORK HOME OF THE PEERLESS 
 
 the ease with which similar wants can be met when 
 an adequate organization and mechanical equipment 
 are within easy reach. 
 
 Realizing the importance of prompt and efficient 
 service, as adding greatly to the pleasurable satis- 
 faction of being a user of the Peerless car, it has 
 been the aim of the Peerless Company to excel in 
 this service, with the same thoroughness that has 
 characterized the construction of the car itself. 
 
 A measure of the Company's intentions has 
 been achieved in providing an establishment in 
 New York where a complete service In reconstruc- 
 tion, modifications, repairs, overhauling, and special 
 order work, can be done under one roof. By 
 avoiding the necessity of having the different parts 
 of such work done in different places, it is possible 
 to facilitate the work to a degree not otherwise 
 possible. 
 
 The service provided by the Peerless Company 
 includes almost every kind of work germane to the 
 use of its cars, such as the following: 
 
 Work necessary to adjust parts of the mechanism 
 that have gotten out of order during ordinary use of 
 the car. 
 
 Work necessitated by the owner's desire to change 
 or modify the equipment of his car. 
 
 Restorations due to accidents, mishaps, and 
 improper care of the car. 
 
 Making special tops to suit individual require- 
 ments. 
 
 Making, fitting, upholstering, and painting special 
 bodies to suit the taste of the owner. 
 
 5 
 
JUST FROM THE FACTORY 
 
THE NEW YORK HOME OF THE PEERLESS 
 
 Repainting and refinishing cars to express individ- 
 ual ideas of the owner. 
 
 Overhauling such as is usually desirable after a 
 hard season's use. 
 
 Overhauling and refinishing used cars that are to 
 be resold under the Peerless guarantee. 
 
 Overhauling used cars that have changed owner- 
 ship without having been previously done over. 
 
 Storing new cars that have been sold and have 
 been received from the factory awaiting delivery. 
 
 Where it becomes necessary to adjust the 
 mechanism of Peerless cars, as occasionally happens 
 with almost any mechanical apparatus, it is the 
 pride of the Peerless Company to make such 
 adjustments with the least possible delay, and to do 
 the work where possible at such times as the ma- 
 chine may not be in requisition by the owner. Many 
 valuable ideas used in developing and perfecting our 
 mechanism are gained by coming in contact with 
 even the smallest points of disorder. For the sake 
 of this information, and because it is our desire to 
 render a thoroughly complete service with our cars, 
 the Company encourages owners to call attention to 
 even the slightest points, rather than to let them go, 
 or to attempt adjustment themselves. The present 
 degree of perfection in motor car construction has 
 been attained only by watching the results of cars 
 in daily use; and while actual perfection is as yet 
 an unattained ideal, it is the desire of the Peerless 
 Company to take all necessary steps to approach it 
 as closely as possible. It is perhaps unnecessary 
 to add that all adjustments due to any fault in 
 
 7 
 
THE NEW YORK HOME OF THE PEERLESS 
 
 the mechanism are gladly made without charge. 
 Changes in the equipment, such as putting on 
 special tops, glass fronts, seat covers, speedometers, 
 clocks, bumpers, etc., are made with the least 
 possible delay. Such equipment may be bought 
 separately, made to order, or selected from our 
 stock, as may be desired. 
 
 The Peerless service is especially capable of 
 restoring cars after accidents or mishaps, all neces- 
 sary parts being kept in stock to the extent of 
 over $200,000 and skilled workmen and machinery 
 at hand to do whatever is necessary to put the car 
 in perfect condition, even though it be completely 
 wrecked. 
 
 Where a different kind of top is desired than 
 the standard commonly in use, it may be made to 
 order and fitted under the owner's supervision and 
 with but slight retention of the car for measure- 
 ments and fitting. 
 
 Special bodies are often desired, as a basis for 
 the expression of individual taste in the lines, color, 
 finish, and upholstery. Ample provisions are made 
 for this work, and many ideas in color, taste and 
 arrangement, as well as samples of materials, are 
 available for selection, as well as the disposition to 
 work out any good ideas the owner of the car may 
 bring from other sources. 
 
 Painting of cars is a department of the work 
 requiring expert attention, as everyone knows who 
 is familiar with the intricacies of such work. When 
 
 9 
 
THE S 
 
ROOM 
 
INSPECTION DEPARTMENT 
 
THE NEW YORK 
 
 HOME 
 
 OF THE PEERLESS 
 
 it is remembered that to get a piano finish on an 
 automobile body requires from sixteen to twenty 
 coats of paint, oil and varnish, with various inter- 
 mediate processes of drying and rubbing down, the 
 importance of expert work becomes apparent. Of 
 this department of its service, both as to efficiency 
 of workmanship, and good taste in the use of colors, 
 the Company is especially proud. 
 
 After a hard season's wear it is customary and 
 desirable for motor cars to be thoroughly overhauled, 
 worn parts replaced, strained parts adjusted, and 
 the enclosed mechanism taken apart and cleaned 
 and put together again. Whether a car seems to 
 need such treatment or not it is a safe precaution 
 such as one would expect to be taken with a loco- 
 motive to which was entrusted the safety of the 
 passengers. The time required for this work is made 
 as short as is consistent with thorough work and 
 may be arranged for at such time as the car is not 
 especially needed in active use. The ability of this 
 department to adapt its work to such time as may 
 be most convenient for the owner, is a point care- 
 fully considered in its organization and equipment. 
 
 Considerable floor space is devoted to overhauling 
 and reflnishing used cars that are to be resold under 
 the Peerless guarantee. Models of a few years back 
 can, by overhauling, and replacing worn parts, be 
 made substantially as good as new, except of course 
 that they are not new and cannot be sold as such. 
 But they are greatly superior to new cars of less 
 
 '3 
 
IN THE REPAIR SHOP 
 
THE NEW YORK HOME OF THE PEERLESS 
 
 expensive and less substantial makes, and are in 
 every way worthy of being classed with the latest 
 Peerless models, so far as their ability to give satisfac- 
 tory service is concerned. The restoration of these 
 cars forms an interesting department of the business. 
 
 Ample provision is also made for doing over 
 used Peerless cars that have changed owners, and 
 which the new owner desires to have put in perfect 
 condition. 
 
 In all its work of repairing, overhauling, repaint- 
 ing, and reflnishing, the Company declines to turn 
 out as completed a car which stands in obvious need 
 of further work, or which should have more thorough 
 attention than might make it merely passable. To 
 compromise with the situation only invites later 
 dissatisfaction for both the owner and the Company, 
 and it is the policy of the Company to avoid this. 
 
 The equipment necessary to carry on the work 
 suggested in these pages includes an organization 
 of about 250 operatives, and necessary machinery 
 for working with steel, iron, tin, wood, leather, etc., 
 together with an office organization to maintain the 
 necessary system for the proper operation of 
 the plant. 
 
 The building in which these various departments 
 are housed is a ten story steel and re-inforced 
 concrete structure, faced with white terra cotta. 
 The frontage is 70 feet on Broadway, and the lot 
 90 feet deep, with an extension having a 25 foot 
 frontage on A Vest 57th Street. 
 
 5 
 
AT THE FORGE 
 
THE NEW YORK HOME OF THE PEERLESS 
 
 The salesroom occupies the ground floor, and is 
 designed to be in keeping with the Peerless cars, in 
 dignity and richness. The walls and columns are of 
 Botticino marble. The panels and side walls are 
 of Greek Skyros, and the base of Pennsylvania 
 Serpentine marble. The border of the floor is in 
 Verde Antique and Old Convent Sienna. The 
 Mosaic floor is of Sienna marble sawed in slabs and 
 broken by hand, to get a novel effect. The lighting 
 of the salesroom is concealed in marble caps on the 
 side walls, giving 8000 candle-power of a softly 
 diffused light. The ceiling is of gold leaf. 
 
 Among the interesting features of the building 
 may be mentioned the perfect ventilating system 
 for the offices and salesrooms, the two immense 
 elevators used for lifting cars from one floor to 
 another, automatically controlled electric dumb 
 waiter system connecting all floors, telephone system 
 reaching all departments, and a telautograph 
 system connecting different floors of the building. 
 At the Fifty-seventh Street entrance is a turn table 
 which is useful in transferring cars from one part of 
 the building to another. 
 
 While no provision is made for garage business, 
 and no part of the building is used for storing 
 machines not held for a definite purpose, a reservoir 
 tank for gasoline is provided, so that the gasoline 
 may be pumped through pipes to automobiles at 
 the ground floor entrance, without handling. The 
 building is fireproof, and is supplied with an 
 
 17 
 
PAINTING ROOM 
 
THE fTFTY-SKVKNTH STREET ENTRANCE FOR CABS 
 
THE FACTORY AT CLEVELAND 
 
THE NEW YORK HOME OF THE PEERLESS 
 
 automatic sprinkler system, with two large tanks 
 which are kept filled by pumps that start automat- 
 ically when the water falls below a certain level. 
 
 The architect of the building is Francis Kimball, 
 well known as architect of the Trinity Building, 
 City Investing Building and many other well 
 known buildings. The construction work was 
 done by the Fuller Construction Company. The 
 ground, building and contents represent an invest- 
 ment of over $1,000,000. 
 
 The provision made in New York City for the 
 care of Peerless cars and Peerless customers is 
 similar to that provided by the Company in other 
 large cities. And while in many other localities it 
 has not been possible to carry out the idea on the 
 scale suited to metropolitan requirements, the spirit 
 of the service here provided may properly be 
 considered indicative of the "Peerless Service" 
 wherever this Company is in touch with the users 
 of its cars. 
 
 The manufacturing plant and home offices of 
 The Peerless Motor Car Company are located at 
 Cleveland, Ohio. The plant employs 2500 work- 
 men. Here the Peerless cars are made, with what 
 degree of thoroughness and ingenuity is elsewhere 
 told, and from here are distributed to all the 
 leading centers in the United States. 
 
 The Peerless Motor Car Company of New York 
 is a subsidiary Company whose directorate includes 
 officers of the parent company. 
 
 21 
 
THE NEW YORK HOME OF THE PEERLESS 
 
 The officers of the parent company are : L. H. 
 Kittredge, President ; E. H. Parkhurst, Vice 
 President; Frank I. Harding, Treasurer; George 
 B. Siddall, Secretary. 
 
 The officers of the Peerless Motor Car Company 
 of New York, are: L. H. Kittredge, President; 
 A. N. Dutton, Vice President; J. Hunter Lack, 
 Secretary. 
 
Planned and written by 
 George Batten Company, New York 
 
 Illustrations by 
 Alfred Brennan 
 
 Sectional View drawn by 
 Maurice Collette 
 
 Printing and Binding by 
 Baktlett-Orr Press, New York 
 
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