Chevrolet Bros Race Shop

By Shawn Miller

Having been hanging around the Mass Ave area since I left Wabash College I was aware of the long one story warehouse building on the east side of Fulton St.- it runs almost all the way from North to St Clair. In fact at one time I leased a little garage in the building behind it (the Blumlux building now), when I started collecting old cars. The building had been leased to the Barry Company for decades so was rather quiet and just something you drove by until recently. Since the construction of the Circa Apartments, a couple small businesses have leased storefronts. I got a call one day from a gentleman from Switzerland -Martin Sinzig-who was interested in a car I own- the Scripps Booth daVinci- a one off prototype which was built by Louis Chevrolet in his shop (now demolished) on W 10^th St. over by the Canal. Martin is a Chevrolet Historian with several books to his credit on the subject. We met and talked about the car and what I knew of the history of its build by Chevrolet, and ended up becoming fast friends. On a subsequent visit Martin mentioned he had compiled a list of all the known addresses of Louis Chevrolet, and asked if I would help him locate the structures. Of course I jumped at this chance and we spent a sunny afternoon driving all around downtown-Mr. Chevrolet moved around a bit.

Our first stop ended up being only 2 blocks from my office! The warehouse on Fulton actually was the site of the Chevrolet brothers racing shop at 705 Fulton Ave.(currently Kaffiene Coffee) in 1919, 1920 and likely through 1921. (see ad for Machinist). The Chevrolet brothers-Louis, Arthur, and Gaston were quite active and successful in the early 20’s in Indy car racing. In fact Gaston Chevrolet won the 1920 Indy 500 in a Monroe Special- the first American car to win the 500 since 1912. Gaston was also the first driver/car to win without a tire change. The Brothers had 7 cars entered that year- 4 Monroe’s and 3 Frontenac’s. Tragically, Gaston was killed in a racing accident later that year in Beverly Hills, CA. The team also won the 1921 Indy 500 with Tommy Milton driving a Frontenac in a rare repeat win. Later- beginning in 1922 their Frontenac Heads (rather exotic performance parts designed to be fitted to the ubiquitous Ford Model T engine) were quite commercially successful and even powered their racing cars. The team was also the first to use radio communication between the riding mechanic and the pits in 1922.

Back in those days the race cars were built in the various racing shops around town and actually driven to the track in many cases. This would obviously require test runs on the local streets surrounding the shop. It was more of an industrial block than a residential one so I guess this wasn’t too big a deal. Still the thought of a 20’s race car thundering up Fulton to St Clair over to Noble (College) St down to North and back onto Fulton, makes my mind race.

Checking the Standard Catalogue of American Cars, I discovered that the Monroe Automobile, formerly of Flint, MI and heavily influenced by William C. Durant; was actually built in Indianapolis beginning in 1918; after being purchased out of bankruptcy by the William Small Company- formerly its sales agent for Indianapolis. Ironically Mr. Small hired Louis Chevrolet (who had no love lost for his former boss Mr. Durant) as a consulting engineer to the company. Mr. Chevrolet’s role in the Monroe car was limited, but he was allowed to use the Small manufacturing facilities to build these 7 Race cars. Unfortunately in August of 1920 the Small Company went into receivership, so the win in the 500 came too late to change the fate of the Monroe, which ceased production altogether in 1923-by then part of Premier.

The IHPC has no real information on this building. It does not appear on the 1915 Sanborn Map, so based on our 1919 advertisement -must have been built between 1915 and 1919. The William Small Company was located at 602 N Capital, so it’s possible Chevrolet moved his race shop here after Small went into receivership

The building appears to be more of a spec/rental industrial building- sort of a forerunner to the “Industrial Park” concept so common today. It has numerous “storefronts” each of which have a loading dock;as well as a pedestrian entrance. Constructed of Brick over a concrete foundation, I am uncertain if the entire structure was built at once or in succession. The brick and parapet design elements do all match, however; so if it wasn’t built at once- it was completed in short order. It is sort of a flat iron building to a certain extent since it occupies the entire block formed by the diagonal run of Davidson St to the rear-which also appears to have had a rail spur running along the building side of it. This building gives us a glimmer of what distributors or manufacturers would have found necessary to do business in the late teens/early 20s- rail access at the rear of the building for bulk deliveries- and loading docks and pedestrian entrances at the front for retail sales and pickups.

My drive past this building has been forever changed. Armed with this knowledge of its history, I will never look at it the same way again. It’s good to see it becoming a home to small creative businesses and I expect more to follow now that the block is getting a bit more traffic. Next time you are in Kaffiene Coffee, listen closely and see if you can hear an engine roar.