A non-batteau form of local transportation featured in Batteau Festival

By Susan Pugh

Published: June 11, 2008

Batteaux aren’t the only form of local transportation featured during this weekend’s Batteau Festival.

A 1919 Bush touring car — assembled in Lynchburg by the Piedmont Motor Car Co. during the early 1900s and one of only a handful of Piedmont cars still known to exist — will be on display Saturday in front of the Lynchburg Museum.

Doug Harvey, the city museum system director, said he’d heard of the cars while growing up in Lynchburg, but had never seen one.

Then one day last year, he got a call from Dabney Jackson, a longtime museum volunteer.

“He said, ‘Doug, you need to take a ride with me. You’ll never believe what my nephew has bought.’”

Turns out nephew Steve Puckette of Forest had purchased the Piedmont Bush.

“I was amazed. It wasn’t quite as rare as Bigfoot, but …” Harvey said.

“I said, ‘I didn’t know any still existed,’” Harvey said, adding that there might be some tucked away in garages in other parts of the country or in Europe that people here are unaware of.

Piedmont operated on Hollins Mill Road where the Flowers Bakery now stands. The company, started by Wallace Taylor Sr. in 1917, sold cars under the names Piedmont, Alsace, Lone Star and Bush.
Piedmont vehicles were essentially assembled in Lynchburg with parts brought in by railroad, although some parts of the car body were hammered out at the Hollins Mill Road plant.

Piedmont offered several models, including roadsters, touring cars and small trucks. Buyers had a choice of four- or six-cylinder motors with 30 or 40 horsepower, respectively. Piedmont used Lycoming and Continental Red Seal engines.

The company never developed dealerships to market the vehicles, but made them for other companies instead. The Bush was made for a Chicago firm, the Lone Star for a Texas company and the Alsace for the European market.

One Piedmont car won a road race and set a new record on Virginia roads sometime in the late teens when it covered 424 miles by going from Lynchburg to Richmond, Charlottesville, Staunton, Lexington, Roanoke and back again in 20 hours and 47 minutes, Harvey said.

The race was not without mishap. He said the driver was arrested for speeding in Richmond and had to pay a fine of $55.

In 1920, 1,500 cars were completed at the plant. That year, a four-cylinder Piedmont cost $1,485 and a six-cylinder model went for around $2,000, in contrast with $300 to $500 for the Model Ts and inexpensive Chevies, Harvey said.

By 1922, competition from the more affordable Ford and Chevrolet vehicles helped lead to Piedmont’s closing, despite Piedmont’s efforts to compete, such as a sale in 1920 when it knocked $500 off the price of any model.

On Saturday, Puckette’s car will be near the front of the museum at 901 Court St. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In case of rain, the showing will be rescheduled. Greg Krueger, museum curator and car buff, will be on hand.

For information, call (434) 455-6226 or visit http://www.lynchburgmuseum.org.