Buick Automobile Company Building

When this building was completed in 1908, Buick became the first automotive company in Kansas City to build a dealership and warehouse specifically to show and store the company's line of automobiles. At the time, Buick was one of a few prominent automobile companies in Kansas City. After Buick opened its warehouse, Kansas City grew into the country's third biggest auto market, having experienced a more than 450% jump in sales from 1910-1915. Two years before that boom arose, Buick created General Motors, which acquired several other car makers and grew into an automobile empire. Buick used the historic building from 1908 to 1948 and the building is now home to loft apartments.

Mass production of automobile development gained momentum in the 1890s and early 1900s when bicycle manufacturers and those connected to making horse-drawn carriages transitioned into automakers. By 1904, the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company in South Bend, Indiana, the world's largest horse-drawn carriage manufacturer at the time, began producing their own automobile model. During the first decade or two, the vast majority of automobile manufacturers failed, but companies that succeeded included Ford, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Packard, Studebaker, and Buick. 

David D. Buick sold his plumbing supply business in Detroit and concentrated on developing a gas-powered engine. Indeed, early vehicles enjoyed electric or steam power before gasoline engines became the preferred fuel by 1910. Buick designed a vehicle and had it partially built by 1901. Buick approached Walter L. Marr to sell him his new automobile, but instead of selling it, Marr joined Buick, along with Eugene C. Richard, in a partnership to develop the innovative "valve-in-head" engine. The inventive engine idea proved more efficient than the L-head engine preferred by most early car manufacturers and independent builders; the entire industry eventually used Buick, Marr, and Richard's engine design. 

While Buick enjoyed success as a visionary, he showed little in the way of business acumen. Buick's partnership with Richards and Marr proved shortlived (Marr left Buick and joined Ransom E. Olds in producing the first line of Oldsmobiles.) In 1903, Buick incorporated his business and formed a new partnership with Benjamin Briscoe and Jonathan ("John") Dixon Maxwell, but that relationship also failed. Indeed, Maxwell and Briscoe went on to create their own automobile empire, including Maxwell Motors and Chrysler. Another partnership with James H. Whiting, a wagon maker in Flint, Michigan, ended quickly. In 1904, Buick attempted again to establish a collaboration, teaming with William C. Durant. Buick cared much more about designing and perfecting automobiles, so Durant purchased a controlling interest in the Buick Motor Company and subsequently turned the company into a household name.

Thus, although David D. Buick forged the first Buick automobile featuring the valve-in-head engine, Durant guided the Buick company to its success. Buick fell into debt with the company due to the numerous forming and dissolving of partnerships. Durant initially canceled the debt, giving Buick $100,000 to invest as he saw fit. But Buick squandered that money and never again became relevant in the automaking industry. Indeed, The Buick name forever became part of American cultural history, but Buick, the man, died penniless in 1929.  

The Day Automobile Company and E. P. Moriarity and Company operated as Kansas City's first automobile dealers in 1901, but only Moriarity remained in business by 1904, when nine automobile dealers, including Cadillac and Oldsmobile, established operations in Kansas City. Ford arrived in 1905, and Buick opened its first automobile warehouse in the city in 1906 when, by then, the city supported twenty-four automobile dealers -- the car business was booming. By 1915, Kansas City stood as the nation's third largest automobile market, having experienced a 442% jump in sales from 1910 - 1915. Most early automobile companies operated out of commercial buildings constructed during the nineteenth century, but Buick built one of the first facilities in Kansas City explicitly designed as an automobile warehouse; the Buick facility opened in 1908.

Buick's three-story building consisted of a repair shop in the basement, a showroom and warehouse on the first floor, and a garage on the second floor. Richard H. Collins first worked as the dealership's sales manager before becoming president. Collins also actively participated in the Kansas City Commercial Club, the precursor to the Chamber of Commerce, and actively promoted the city's image. He also spearheaded an annual five-mile auto race from 1909 through 1912, which took place at a former horse track that had been closed in 1906. The prize for the race was the R. H. Collins Trophy, a sterling silver winning cup named for its sponsor. The race ended in 1912 because Collins took a job as vice-president of General Motors (GM) at its Detroit headquarters, which had recently been formed by Durant and the Buick Automobile Company. By the time Buick consolidated with GM, Durant had already acquired Cadillac, and by the 1930s, GM included such names as Pontiac and Oldsmobile. Buick and the other GM brands all grew into an industry powerhouse. The building in Kansas City continued to act as a Buick dealership until 1948.

Millstein, Cydney and Mary Ann Warfield. "Registration Form: Buick Automobile Company Building." National Register of Historic Places. mostateparks.com. 2003. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Buick%20Auto%20Co.%20Bldg.pdf

"The Rise of the Automobile." Scientific American 112, no. 23 (1915): 521–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26022220.

Smil, Vaclav. Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing. The MIT Press, 2013. 

Swan, Tony. "1908 Buick Model 10 and 1909 Ford Model T: The centurions: One car was the cornerstone of a vast automotive empire. The other would change the world." Car and Driver Magazine. caranddriver.com. November 1, 2008. https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15388664/1908-buick-model-10-and-1909-ford-model-t/