Coachbult.com - M.P. Moller Motor Car Company



M.P. Moller Motor Car Company - 1910s-1930s - Hagerstown, Maryland

The M.P Moller Motor Car Company of Hagerstown Maryland built bodies and complete cabs from 19 to 1938. They also built prototypes for a number of vehicles including the 1936 Devo (by Norman deVaux of DeVaux fame), the 1930 Martin (formerly the ‘Dart’) mini car, and the 1927 New York Six. Moller also built bodies for the following taxi cabs, the 1933-35 Town Taxi (which was mounted on a small Diamond T truck chassis), the 1935 Ford-Moller Taxicab and the 1937-38 International Beach Wagon. Moller marketed a number of cabs sold complete. These include the Luxor, Astor, Arisocrat, Blue Light, Five Boro, Mercury (1930), Moller, Paramount, and 20th Century. All the Moller bodies were made in Hagerstown, but they also had plants in Chicopee, Massachusetts (the former Stevens-Duryea plant) and Framingham, Massachusetts (the former Bay State plant) where many of the cabs where assembled.

A separate company called the Luxor Cab Manufacturing Company was organized in Massachusetts to handle the manufacturing and sales of taxi cabs to northeastern cab companies. M.P. Moller is best known for their famous pipe organs as well as the infamous Dagmar and “Baby” Dagmar cars which they built between 1923 and 1927. The Dagmar was originally built in 1922 by the Crawford Automobile Company which was soon taken over by its major shareholder, Mathias P Moller, in 1923. M.P. Moller manufactured auto bodies, cab bodies, wood station wagon bodies and complete cars and cabs from 1923 until 1938, a year after Mathias P. Moller died.

M.P Moller did some custom work including a few 1930-31 Hupmobile Station Wagons that Donald J Narus attributes to them in "Woodies and Wagons".

Along with M.P. Moller and Baker-Raulang, the Burkett Closed Body Company built production suburban bodies for International Harvester in 1936.

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MOLLER (US) 1927-1931

MP. Moller Motor Car Co. Hagerstown, Md.

The Moller company made a variety of taxicabs sold under at least nine names. The 4-cylinder Astor and Luxor are covered under their own names, but there were also the Moller, Blue Light and Twentieth Century short wheelbase 4-cylinder cabs, and a range of larger 6-cylinder models sold under the names Paramount, Super Paramount, Aristocrat and Five Boro. These names were either chosen for the operating company, as with Five Boro, or simply because the promoters thought a stylish new name would increase sales. Production of Moller-designed cabs ceased in 1931, but a few small Diamond T truck chassis were fitted with Moller bodies in 1933, and sold under the name Town Taxi. Moller also made cab bodies for Ford V-8s in the period 1932 to 1936. At its peak in the late 1920s, the Moller factory was turning out 125 cabs per week. GNG

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1937-40 International Woodies – D-2 Station Wagon bodies were supplied to International by three outside builders: Moller, Cantrell and Hercules.

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ELYSEE (US) 1929-c.1932

M. P. Moller Motor Car Co., Hagerstown, Md.

The only goods vehicle made by the Moller company, whose other products included Dagmar and Standish passenger cars and a variety of taxicabs including Luxor, Paramount and Astor, was the Elysee panel delivery. This used the same radiator grille and Continental Red Seal 6cylinder engine as the Standish car, and was made in four models, the Band Box. Fifth Avenue, Courier and Mercury, the first two having a 15 cwt capacity and the latter two 30-cwt. They were stylish vehicles and were intended for the delivery of high-class goods to wealthy homes. GNG

LUXOR (US) 1924-1927

(1) Luxor Cab Mfg. Co., Framingham, Mass. (2) MP. Moller Motor Co., Hagerstown, Md.

The Luxor was a taxicab made by the M.P. Moller company in the former Bay State automobile factory at Framingham. It had a 4-cylinder Buda engine, and was available in limousine and landaulette versions. Later Luxors were made in the Moller factory at Hagerstown which was also making other cabs such as the Astor as well as Dagmar passenger cars. GNG

For more information please read:

Donald J. Narus - Great American Woodies and Wagons

Donald J. Narus - Chrysler's Wonderful Woodie: The Town and Country

Donald F. Wood - American Woodys

David Fetherston - American Woodys

David Fetherston - Woodys

Richard Bloechl - Woodies & Wagons

Robert Leicester Wagner - Wood Details

Ron Kowalke - Station Wagon: A Tribute to America's Workaholic on Wheels

Byron Olsen - Station Wagons

Robert J., Jr. Headrick - Chevrolet Station Wagons: 1946 Through 1966 Photo Archive

James T. Lenzke & Karen E. O'Brien - Standard Catalog of American Light-Duty Trucks: 1896-2000