1920 Carroll Six Tourer

The Carroll Automobile Company of Lorain, Ohio, produced a middle-price range car. This particular example (one of 183 cars built by the Carroll Automobile Company), currently owned by the Swigart Museum, is the only known Carroll still in existence. These were 'assembled cars', and made to each customer's specification (i.e. a frame from one car, an engine from another, etc.). Priced at $3,895, two body styles were offered, a 2-passenger roadster and a 5-passenger touring, both resting on a 128-inch wheelbase.

Claimed to be 'fully-equipped,' each car included a permanent California top, six disc or wire wheels, cord tires, tire covers, trunk rack, bumpers, and a host of other accessories that set the typical automobile purchaser back $1,000 or more in price. Its most distinctive feature was its radiator, which was set 7.5-inches in back of the front axle.

The Swigart museum purchased the car in 1967 from the estate of the original builder, Charles Francis Carroll, who had used it as his personal vehicle. Mr. Carroll owned a successful advertising agency in Cleveland from 1910 to 1917. The agency had created a famous ad for Fisk Tire Co., along with some work for Auburn, which he tried unsuccessfully to buy in 1918. Instead, he began his own auto manufacturing business in 1920 in Lorain. Between 1920 and 1923, he built around 200 cars before going bankrupt.

The cars had an innovative, raked windshield, with bronze frame and featured a small, lower section and a movable upper part. They had a set-back radiator, disc wheels, 'California' top and side curtains, Spanish leather for upholstery and interior, long running boards, dual side-mounted spare tires, and no fender wells.

By Daniel Vaughan | Jun 2018