Durant-Dort Carriage Company - Flint MI
Posted by: 
nomadwillie
N 43° 01.039 W 083° 41.716
17T E 280368 N 4766262
Durant-Dort Carriage Company leased a factory on Water Street, originally used by the Flint Woolen Mills, to produce road carts. This company eventually bought Buick and then became General Motors.
Waymark Code: WMPVN5
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 10/26/2015
Views: 5
The origin of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company came in 1886, when William C. Durant rode in a friend's spring-suspension road cart.[4] Impressed with the smoothness of the ride, Durant obtained the patent and manufacturing rights to the cart for $2000, and with J. Dallas Dort, founded the Flint Road Car Company that same year. Dort, as president, handled manufacturing and administrative details for the firm, while Durant handled sales and promotion. The firm first had their offices located in Durant's insurance agency in downtown Flint. They leased a factory on Water Street, originally used by the Flint Woolen Mills, to produce road carts. The company sold 4000 carts its first year, and quickly grew from there. Under Durant's leadership, the company expanded by acquiring subsidiary companies that produced not only vehicles, but the components for vehicles as well.
In 1895, Flint Road Car changed its name to the Durant-Dort Carriage Company. By 1900, Durant-Dort was the largest producer of horse-drawn vehicles in the United States. In 1906, the company's peak year, it produced 56,000 vehicles. Durant-Dort owned not just the Flint manufacturing works, but also other vehicle assembly plants in Michigan, Georgia, and Canada, as well as timberland, lumber mills, a wheel company, the Flint Axle Works, and the Flint Varnish Works.
The company continued making horse-drawn carriages until 1917, and the factory and office buildings were converted to the manufacture of automobiles by the Dort Motor Company.
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