1909 Huselton Blog

[Standard Eight]

The Butler Old Stone House Region maintains the above 1909 Huselton for the city of Butler PA. I thought you might find our clubs running blog about maintaining Butler City's 1909 Huselton (and the clubs own 1922 Standard Eight) interesting. - Bob

You can see the latest entry here --> The 1909 Huselton Gets Attention To The Brakes, Fan, and Headlights

Below is a short summary of the Huselton automobile:

At the turn of the 20^th century the oil boom in Butler,PA and surrounding counties was on the verge of a bust, local businesses now looked to supplying the beginnings of the initial steel industry. One of the most successful area merchants, located on the Main St. of Butler PA, was B.C. Huselton, the owner of the B.C. Huselton Shoe Store. He understood the world about him was changing, becoming faster paced and more complicated and in order to prepare his son Edgar to take over the business B.C. sent the young lad to Mercersburg Academy for a solid education in modern business practice.

In 1906, twenty three year old Edgar C. Huselton came home. He returned to assume his place alongside his father in the family shoe business. But the shoe store was boring for Edgar and he would yield to other possibilities of the new century. Before the year was over, Edgar left the shoe store and became the first automobile dealer in Butler County, becoming an agent for the Reliance Automobile Company.

In 1909 Edgar became even further entranced by the possibilities of a new age. In a small carriage house on North Washington Street in Butler, Pa. Edgar began the construction of the first Huselton automobile. It was in the best sense an “assembled car”. He chose the highest quality mechanical components available at the time and built a fine high-grade automobile. This first car was a gloriously big two seat race-a-bout, with a forty horsepower Wisconsin engine, which he used on weekends to race other autos from Butler to East Butler. This was a distance of about 3 miles (one way), Edgar being the most successful with his big car. Edgar Huselton’s intention was that this car was to be built with same care and quality as the famous “P” cars of that day: Pierce, Packard and Peerless.

From 1909 to 1915, Edgar and his five employees built eleven more cars, one “Butler” truck and a funeral hearse for a local funeral director. But it became apparent to him that the future of the automobile business lay with the large manufacturers capable of mass production.

Edgar did remain in the automobile business all his life, becoming the dealer for a number of makes including: Velie, Reo, Hudson, Cadillac, Pierce Arrow, GMC, and International. Edgar never sold his Big Sporty Two Seater. He used it as his personal transportation for years. Upon getting married and raising five children he extended and rebodied the car into the seven passenger tourer it is today. The big tourer passed from father to son to grandson.

In 1984, B. C. Huselton III (grandson) returned the car to its birthplace in Butler and donated the car to the city of Butler, with the specific instructions that the members of the Butler Old Stone House Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America would be responsible for the storage, maintenance and driving of this unique car.

Since 1984 the Butler Old Stone House Region has assumed this responsibility and has completely gone over the car making it mechanically roadworthy and restoring the exterior of the car.