1899 Ohio Model A, “Old Number One.” Photo from B.R. Howard.
Though it has rested in a glass case in Lehigh University’s engineering building for the last 85 years, Old Number One – the vehicle considered to be the very first Packard ever built – hasn’t exactly sat idle that whole time. Students over the years got to take it on jaunts around town, and it seems every time some dignitary came by, Lehigh officials would pull it out for a photo op. With Lehigh installing a new permanent enclosure for it, however, Old Number One’s cruising days may very well have come to an end.
No tombstone grille adorns the front of Old Number One, and technically it’s not even a Packard – it was built as an Ohio Model A four years before the automotive division of the New York and Ohio Company in Warren, Ohio, changed its name to Packard – but Packard enthusiasts and historians embrace it as one of their own nonetheless. James Ward Packard, his brother, William Doud Packard, and two former Winton employees, George Weiss and William Hatcher, built the car in 1899 as the first of five Model A’s, conceived after James Ward Packard took his troublesome Winton back to the factory in Cleveland one too many times with suggestions for improvements.
Completed on November 6, 1899, the Model A featured a number of innovations, including a pedal for throttle control, automatic spark advance, a float-feed carburetor, and a recirculating water pump for the cooling system. It still remained rather primitive in other aspects, however, with a tiller steering system, a total loss oiling system, a buggy-type body built by carriage-maker Morgan and Williams, and a 9 horsepower single-cylinder suction-intake engine driving through a four-speed planetary transmission and chain drive to the rear axle.
Photos courtesy The Making of Modern Michigan.
Though little information seems to exist on Old Number One from the first 30 years of its existence – James Ward Packard reportedly drove it as his everyday vehicle, and it posed for plenty of photos in the early years of what would become the Packard Motor Car Company – Chris Larkin of Lehigh’s engineering school said it ended up sitting outside of Packard’s Detroit plant after the company moved there in 1903. Not until late 1929 did Packard officials seem to take an interest in it again, refurbishing it for its donation to the university in November of that year.
James Ward Packard, an 1884 graduate of Lehigh University, made it a point to give back to his alma mater and before his 1928 death donated $1.2 million for an entirely new laboratory to house the university’s engineering school. So as not to forget who made that possible, the school installed Old Number One in the building’s lobby. “It’s very emblematic for our dyed-in-the-wool alumni and supporters,” Larkin said. “It’s what makes Lehigh special to them, so there’s a whole lot of interest in that community to see that the car’s treated properly.” In addition to the student voyages (supervised, and used as rewards for particularly high-level accomplishments) and the photo ops, Old Number One also ventured out for Packard’s centennial celebrations in 1999 and again to a show in 2004.
Photos from Lehigh University.
The engineering college recently decided to renovate that lobby, a project that included devoting more space to Old Number One and a new, larger display case for it. Because it still dripped a little oil here and there – and because the new display case included LED and fiber optic lighting aimed at the underside of Old Number One – college officials decided it was time to clean up and preserve the car. “It wasn’t in pristine condition back when it was donated, but Packard had clearly done some work to bring the car back to life then,” Larkin said. Since then, it’s sat under light bulbs that threw off plenty of heat and has started to look forlorn, Larkin said.
So they handed it over last month to B.R. Howard, a central Pennsylvania firm that specializes in conservation and preservation. Brian Howard said that removing the body from the chassis has revealed “a more interesting history than perhaps Lehigh even knows. When it was last run, it was ridden hard and put away wet.” He described flaking paint and deteriorating leather fenders and dash, along with some touch-up repairs done with black spray paint and some repairs using plastic strapping and staples where the body met the frame. “Right now, we’re taking a couple of cross-sections to see if there’s any evidence of an earlier finish, and it looks like it may have been a burgundy red at one point,” Howard said. “What we see now – no striping, all black – really is not typical for a vehicle of this era.”
Howard said he also intends to flush the coolant and oil lines, possibly after one last engine start-up, and refill them with corrosion inhibitors. “We’ll do everything we can to mothball it, but nothing to prevent it from being used again,” Howard said. “That’s the real hard ethical concerns with a project like this. If it’s a typical museum piece, then sure, they’ll never touch it again, but in the automotive world, that’s a different sell. We love autos for what they are, not for being some static exhibit.”
Larkin said that the university doesn’t expect to ever drive it again. “It’s too important of an artifact to be out of its case,” he said. Still, they want to make sure the engineering college students get a good look at Old Number One’s mechanisms and how James Ward Packard put the car together.
Both Howard and Larkin expect the preservation process to last another two to three months, after which Old Number One will return to its new enclosure. Larkin said the lobby of the Packard Lab building is, and always has been, open to the public.
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