Coachbult.com - George W. McNear - Egerton B. McNear - Edgerton B. McNear



George W. McNear, 1911-1922 Boston, Massachusetts; 1922-1926 Brookline, Massachusetts; – George W. McNear Inc. 1927-1937 - Brookline, Massachusetts; Egerton B. McNear, 1937-1947 (AKA Edgerton B. McNear)- Brookline, Massachusetts; McNear Nash Co. Inc. 1948-1950s - Brookline, Massachusetts; Foreign Motors Inc. 1950s-1970 - Brookline, Massachusetts; Foreign Motors West, 1970- present, Natick, Massachusetts

1936 Pierce-Arrow Deluxe Eight w/ 1918 Vestibule Limousine body ex-Emily E. Sears - courtesy of Robert P Sands

George W. McNear was a continuation of the firm of Quinsler & Co., a firm headed by George J. Quinsler that started building carriages following the end of the Civil War. Quinsler’s first factory was located at 1624 Washington St. on the corner of W. Concord St. near the present day Boston Medical Center.

Quinsler eventually entered into a partnership with the long established Boston firm of J. P. Emond, whose carriage factory was located in Roxbury at the corner of Williams and Washington Sts. The 1875 Boston directory lists the reorganized firm as Edmond & Quinsler.

Unfortunately, the two partners did not get along and in the early 1880s, Quinsler moved to downtown Boston, establishing Quinsler & Co. at 26-34 Cambria St., just across the street from the present-day Berklee College of Music.

Quinsler and his wife Antonia were keenly interested in the history of old Boston and in 1892 purchased the city’s oldest known house. Built in 1651, the James Blake House was restored by the Quinslers and then sold to the city of Boston in 1895 who turned it into a museum. Today, it’s one of Boston’s oldest known buildings and is the only surviving example of West England country framing in the United States.

In November of 1899, the Horseless Age announced that Quinsler & Co. had built 20 hansom cab bodies for the Electric Vehicle Company, the producers of the Columbia Electric and was “prepared to execute any kind of automobile bodywork”.

Apparently their Back Bay customers were purchasing automobiles with some frequency as Quinsler decided to build their own automobile in 1904. Called the Quinsler, it was a small runabout with a 7hp DeDion 1-cylinder gasoline engine that sold for $950.

A former teamster named George W. McNear joined the respected Boston firm of Chauncey Thomas & Co. in the early 1880s. Under the guidance of one of the carriage industry’s most well-known designers, McNear learned all aspects of the carriage trade and developed some skill as a draftsman. By 1892, McNear had become the firm’s chief designer, and his work was often featured in the Hub and Carriage Monthly, the industry’s two leading publications.

Although the firm is primarily known for their fine carriages, they did build a handful of early automobile bodies which were designed by McNear. Unfortunately, his mentor, Chauncey Thomas, had passed away in 1898, and McNear and Leonard B. Nichols, the firm’s new owner, didn’t get along.

At that time, George J. Quinsler, of Quinsler & Co., was looking to retire from the business, and an arrangement was made in 1905 whereby McNear became Quinsler’s chief draftsman and designer as well as a part owner of the firm. The 1906 Boston Automobile Show brochure included a striking Packard limousine designed by McNear and by 1911, the firm’s advertisements read: "George W. McNear, successor to Quinsler & Company." Although both firms produced high quality work, they were always very small, employing no more than 20 craftsmen at their small Cambria St. Shop.

However, that all changed when they moved to a much larger building at 14-18 Station St in suburban Brookline, Massachusetts in the early twenties. With the additional space, they were able to branch out into the lucrative commercial body business and built parlor cars, school buses and delivery trucks for many area governments, schools and businesses. However they still produced an occasional custom body, including a couple of Model A Duesenbergs as well as a number of Rolls-Royces. John deCampi’s ‘Rolls-Royce in America’ lists 5 known McNear bodies on Springfield Rolls-Royce chassis, and one, a handsome Doctor’s Coupe on a 1923 Silver Ghost chassis #136jh, still exists.

McNear’s listing in the 1923 Boston directory lists George W. McNear as proprietor; Egerton B. McNear (AKA Edgerton B. McNear), general manager; F.W. Chandler, purchasing agent; and George Royce, body superintendent.

The firm was incorporated in February 1927 as George W. McNear Inc. with George listed as president and treasurer and his son Egerton B., Vice-President. In 1931 the firm's namesake and founder passed away leaving his son Egerton B. to face the Depression alone.

The firm's custom body customers all but disappeared during those dark years but Egerton managed to survive by building commercial bodies and repainting existing coachwork. The firm continued to dabble in the coach building trade as evidenced by three known survivors, a 1934 Ford V8 Town Car, a 1936 Pierce-Arrow Deluxe Eight and a 1940 Packard 160.

By the end of the decade, the firm, now known only as Egerton B. McNear (AKA Edgerton B. McNear), had moved to much smaller quarters at 20 Webster Place with a listing in the Brookline business directory under auto body repair.

In 1936, Emily Sears Lodge (1906-1992), the wife of US Senator and 1960 Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (1902-1985), commissioned McNear to transfer the limousine bodies from their worn-out chassis which had originally been owned by her father, the prominent Boston physician Henry F. Sears.

Robert P. Sands, a one-time owner of the 1936 Pierce-Arrow, believes that the Vestibule Limousine body on his vehicle originally came from Dr. Sears' 1917-1918 Stearns-Knight, while Karl S. Zahm believes the Town Car body on the 1940 Packard that he once owned came from Sears' 1924 Locomobile. Both cars are pictured to the left.

A letter from Zahm follows:

"Enclosed is a photo of the (1940 Packard), a car that I owned from during the early to mid-1960s. At the time I acquired the car, it had approximately 41,000 miles on the odometer.

"According to information I received from the car's three previous owners, the original owner had been a woman in Brookline, MA by the name of Sears. Previous to this Packard, she'd owned a 1924 Locomobile town car. As the latter was quite long in the tooth by 1939, her chauffeur suggested the purchase of a new car. Inasmuch as Ms Sears was hesitant about parting with her much loved town car, arrangements were with Egerton B. McNear to save the coachwork by removing it from the chassis. Of necessity, the body would be altered somewhat so as to fit the slightly wider Packard chassis. Ms Sears' chauffeur had been instrumental in the selection of a Model 160, a car that would be easier to drive and far more maneuverable in city traffic than the larger Model 180.

"After the body's removal, the original windshield assembly together with the cowling to which it was attached was split and widened. The cowling was re-skinned in aluminum and solid brass spacers were used to widen the free-standing two-panel windshield. Nearly all of the upholstery was replaced with fabrics of the same color, weave and pattern as previously employed. The two windows in the rear doors were raised and lowered by fabric straps as is the division partition's glass so as to replicate the original as much as possible. New pull-down silk shades were installed in the tonneau and the original Dictaphone was rewired. Ms Sears insisted upon retaining the roll-up fabric tendalet over the driver's compartment rather than the far more convenient pullout type common to most then new formal cars. Also retained were the loop-type rear door handles. To access the driver's compartment, one must reach over the sill to unlatch the doors as there were no handles on the exterior. New side curtains with isinglass windows were fabricated for the front doors and the fixed front seat was reupholstered in genuine leather having the same color and grain as the original. The only concession to modernity made by Ms Sears was an under-the-floor rear compartment heater. Attached to the windshield frame on the driver's side was the Locomobile's original solid brass framed mirror. The car was painted the same deep maroon as was Ms Sears' Locomobile with muted red striping. The Sears family crest was reapplied to the rear doors just below the sill. A conventional Packard trunk rack is mounted over the fabric-covered spare tire at the rear of the car. Attesting as to the source of this conversion, a small plate was attached to the lower right side of the cowl that read, "Egerton B. McNear... Brookline, Mass."

The photo of the Sears Packard to the lower left was taken in 1965 in Rockford, IL on the occasion of Zahm's sister's wedding.

In 1948 Egerton B. McNear became Brookline’s Nash distributor, establishing McNear Nash Co., Inc. at a storefront around the corner at 25 Harvard St. McNear had also handled used Rolls-Royce and Bentleys for a number of years and eventually renamed the firm Foreign Motors Inc. in the late Fifties.

In 1970 Foreign Motors Inc. relocated to larger facilities in the Boston suburb of Natick, establishing Foreign Motor West. That firm still survives as a employee-owned multi-franchise European luxury car dealership with branches in Natick, Sudbury and Wayland, Massachusetts.

For more information please read:

www.foreignmotorswest.com

W.E. Gosden - Economical Aristocrat: A 1934 Ford Town Car by McNear - SIA #132 Nov-Dec 1992

Arthur W. Soutter - The American Rolls-Royce

John Webb De Campi - Rolls-Royce in America

Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Car

Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Era

Beverly Rae Kimes - Packard: A History of the Motorcar and Company

Beverly Rae Kimes & Henry Austin Clark Jr. - Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942

Richard Burns Carson - The Olympian Cars

Raymond A. Katzell - The Splendid Stutz

Marc Ralston - Pierce Arrow