Duryea Motor Wagon Company

The Duryea Motor Wagon Company was founded in 1895 in Springfield, Massachusetts, by brothers Charles Duryea and J. Frank Duryea, and is recognized as the first American firm to build gasoline automobiles. The company's first product, the Duryea Motor Wagon, was a one-cylinder, four-horsepower vehicle; a Duryea car won the 1895 Chicago Times-Herald race, the first American automobile race in which any entrant finished, cementing the brothers' early standing in the industry. The company's first ten production vehicles, built in 1896, are considered the first automobiles sold commercially in the United States. Charles Duryea later moved operations to Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1900, continuing to build cars including the Phaeton and Buggyaut models until closing his garage in 1914. Frank Duryea pursued a separate venture, Stevens-Duryea, which continued producing automobiles until 1927.