Past and Present: The Packard Tour Bus

A look at Brooklyn, then and now.

The first Packard car was designed and built by James Ward Packard in 1899. He, his brother William, and business partner, George Weiss, began the Ohio Automobile Company in 1900, which changed its name to the Packard Motor Car Company, two years later. Packard was known for its fine, luxury cars, and introduced the modern steering wheel, 12-cylinder engines, and air conditioning to the automotive world. Very early in their production, they introduced their own lines of trucks and buses. This is one of their early touring buses.

From the early 20th century up until the 1940s, Bedford Avenue was Brooklyn’s Automobile Row, lined with showrooms, repair shops, garages and other auto-related businesses.

Many of those buildings still remain, most notably the Studebaker Building on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Sterling Place. Automobile businesses fanned out from there, so Packard had their Brooklyn showroom and automobile repair facility at nearby 1050 Atlantic Avenue, on the corner of Classon Avenue. Who knows, perhaps this bus came from there, or was serviced there.

The address of the Cooke Transportation Company was 1253 Bedford, which put them near the intersection of Bedford and Brevoort Place, near Fulton Street, in Bedford Stuyvesant, just up the street from the Bedford Armory, where automobile shows were held yearly from the early 1900s until the 1920s. Mr. Cooke, presumably, has hand written his address on the card as being 1112 Dean Street, which was near Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights.

This card is an interesting look at the past. The bus, like the cars of the day, doesn’t look all that comfortable, but it does have the coolest running boards. Today’s touring buses are large padded lounges with bathrooms — much more comfy, holding 56 people, with heat and air conditioning. The spelling on the ad intrigued me as well. According to the dictionary, “buses” is the usual plural of bus, but “busses” was accepted. Today, “busses” is the plural of buss, an electrical connection, or a verb meaning to quickly kiss or embrace. I think most of us would enjoy a short trip in the Packard bus, being bussed by a loved one. GMAP