LeBaron Incorporated
The LeBaron Carossiers (later LeBaron, Inc.) was a U.S. design firm for automobiles and a wheelwright operation, which was headquartered in New York City and later in Detroit.
Company History
The company was founded in 1920 by Raymond H. Dietrich ( 1894-1980 ) and Thomas L. Hibbard ( 1898-1982 ) founded as a design office for automobile bodies in New York. Both founders had previously worked at the wheelwright operating Brewster & Co. in New York State. Shortly thereafter, Ralph S. Roberts came as the third partner of the initially added more to the administration cared but also worked as a designer.
The company initially worked similar to an architectural firm
The first orders came from York Motors in New York and Lincoln.
1923 Hibbard different from the company, founded with a partner, a Minerva - representation in Paris and began to produce exclusive single bodies with partner Howard Darrin in Paris, among other things, Delage and Duesenberg under the name of Hibbard & Darrin. In January 1924 LeBaron Carossiers merged with the Bridgeport Body Co., a wheelwright operating in Bridgeport (Connecticut), the LeBaron Inc.. Dietrich and Clarence W. Seward were president of the new company. LeBaron built bodies in individual production and small series for all major American automotive companies, such as Stutz, Pierce -Arrow or Packard, but also for Isotta Fraschini -, Minerva, Rolls- Royce and other European luxury car manufacturer. Because Duesenberg called the in-house design office ( under Gordon Buehrig ) in a clear reference to LeBaron " LaGrande " said LeBaron refused henceforth to work for the Cord Corporation.
In the years 1924 and 1925 the company introduced many design jobs for Edsel Ford by a friend of Dietrich. 1925 Dietrich also left the company and moved to Detroit. There he founded the coachbuilding company Dietrich Inc.
In 1927, the headquarters of the company was relocated at the instigation of Walter O. Briggs, the owner of the production body manufacturer Briggs Manufacturing Company to Detroit to build special bodies for Lincoln. Three years later, Briggs took over the company; the offices in New York and Bridgeport were closed and LeBaron was performed at Briggs as a design office and Department of exclusive solutions. So LeBaron experts looked at the shape of the open ford Model A grades and is involved; Ford also ordered Briggs an additional series sedan version of the Model A, designed as a scaled-down version of a Lincoln limousine by LeBaron.
Alex Tremulis, a LeBaron designer was instrumental in the development of the prototype Chrysler Thunderbolt.
1934 was the newly LeBaron Bridgeport Body Co. at the old site under the old owners, but without contact. 1952 died Walter O. Briggs. A year later his heirs sold all his company to its largest customers Chrysler. Thus, the LeBaron brand came to this group. First received, based on the exclusive special bodies of the same name, particularly high-quality equipment lines of various models of Chrysler and Imperial LeBaron the addition. Between 1977 and 1995, Chrysler offered at several middle-class models with the description LeBaron. Since then, the name is unused.
Sources and links
- Articles about car body manufacturer in the Detroit News ( English)
- Detailed history of LeBaron (English)
- Coachbuilt.com: New Era Ford taxi, Design LeBaron (English)
- Peacock, Hugo: The Coachbuilt Packard; Dalton Watson Ltd.. London / Motorbooks International Minneapolis (1973 ), ISBN 0-901564-10-9 (English)
- Former body-builder
- Vehicle designer
- Company (Detroit )