Coachbult.com - Pekin Wood Products



Pekin Wood Products Co. - 1920s-1950s - Helena, Arkansas

In 1941, the Chrysler Division introduced their own station wagon, the legendary Town & Country. However, USCHo/USB&F would not build the vehicle nor supply the millwork used in its construction.

Chrysler’s president, David A. Wallace was not attracted to the generic look of the USHCo/USB&F wagons and wanted to create a more luxurious and streamlined vehicle more befitting the prestigious Chrysler brand.

The Town & Country name had previously been used on an aerodynamic station wagon proposal submitted to Chrysler in 1939 by Boyertown Body’s Paul Hafer. Chrysler elected to build the body in-house, but liked the name and appropriated it for the new Chrysler wagons. Clearly influenced by Hafer’s submission, Chrysler’s designers came up with a striking fastback (aka barrelback) with a tapered steel roof and a unique clam-shell tailgate, paneled in Honduras mahogany surrounded by a frame of white ash.

A small Chrysler-controlled sawmill located in Helena, Arkansas called Pekin Wood Products - not Boyertown or USHCo/USB&F - was selected to provide the vehicle’s wooden components which were mated to a Chrysler Windsor chassis at Chrysler’s Jefferson Ave. plant in Detroit.

Pekin Wood Products was a West Helena, Arkansas lumber mill and factory dating from the 1920s that furnished Chrysler Corp. with wood boxes, crates and milled components. A controlling interest in the firm was purchase by Chrysler in the late 30s and along with USHCo/USB&F, the firm supplied wooden components for Plymouth’s 1939 and 1940 wagons. While USHCo/USB&F’s bodies were shipped completely assembled, Pekin supplied knocked down wagon bodies that were crated and shipped by rail to Plymouth’s Lynch Rd assembly plant in Detroit for final assembly.

During World War II, Pekin supplied Chrysler Corp.’s Mound Road truck plant with forty car loads of knocked-down wood boxes that were used to crate components destined for the European and Southeast Asian theatres.

TOWN AND COUNTRY PRODUCTION FIGURES

Year	Production	Notes
1941	996	200 6-Passenger and 796 9-Passenger
1942	999	150 6-Passenger and 849 9-Passenger
1946-'8 Sedans	4,055	1 Brougham, 4,054 Sedans
1946-'8 Conv.	8,375	Plus 6 Hardtops and 102 "8" Sedans
1949	1,001	All Convertibles, and 1 Hardtop
1950	701	All Hardtops
1983-'6	3,725	All Convertibles