Pierce Schenck
Encyclopedia
Pierce Davies Schenck was an entrepreneur in the metalworking business in Dayton, Ohio. He used the garage behind his house on South Brown Street to work on automobiles and in April 1907 incorporated the Speedwell Motor Car Company
. Speedwell purchased and occupied a former Dayton Machine Tool Company factory on Essex Avenue in Dayton's Edgemont neighborhood, a site that later hosted a Delco factory. The factory provided temporary space to the Wright Company
in 1910 before the completion of its new airplane factory in west Dayton. The Great Dayton Flood
of 1913 inundated the Speedwell factory, destroying machinery and automobiles, and the company proved unable to recover and entered receivership in 1915. Schenck later became president of the Dayton Malleable Iron Company and turned his focus to adapting high silicon iron alloys to practical uses. This led to his establishing the Duriron Company, a name which he coined, in 1917. It prospered through high demand for its products generated by the First World War and employed 1,500 people, becoming one of Dayton’s leading industries. His home at 414 Oakwood Avenue in Oakwood
was designed by Dayton architect Albert Pretzinger in 1927.
Speedwell Motor Car Company
The Speedwell Motor Car Company was an early United States automobile manufacturing company established by Pierce Davies Schenck that produced cars from 1907 to 1914. The company's factory rented space for the Wright Company to build its airplanes from February to November 1910 while the Wright...
. Speedwell purchased and occupied a former Dayton Machine Tool Company factory on Essex Avenue in Dayton's Edgemont neighborhood, a site that later hosted a Delco factory. The factory provided temporary space to the Wright Company
Wright Company
The Wright Company was the commercial aviation business venture of the Wright Brothers, established by them in 1909 in conjunction with several prominent industrialists from New York and Detroit with the intention of capitalizing on their invention of the practical airplane. It maintained a...
in 1910 before the completion of its new airplane factory in west Dayton. The Great Dayton Flood
Great Dayton Flood
The Great Dayton Flood of 1913 flooded Dayton, Ohio, and the surrounding area with water from the Great Miami River, causing the greatest natural disaster in Ohio history...
of 1913 inundated the Speedwell factory, destroying machinery and automobiles, and the company proved unable to recover and entered receivership in 1915. Schenck later became president of the Dayton Malleable Iron Company and turned his focus to adapting high silicon iron alloys to practical uses. This led to his establishing the Duriron Company, a name which he coined, in 1917. It prospered through high demand for its products generated by the First World War and employed 1,500 people, becoming one of Dayton’s leading industries. His home at 414 Oakwood Avenue in Oakwood
Oakwood
-Places:in Canada*Oakwood, Ontario*Oakwood-Vaughan, Toronto, Ontario, a neighbourhood**Oakwood Collegiate Institute, a public high school in the southern end of the Oakwood-Vaughan neighbourhoodin the United Kingdom...
was designed by Dayton architect Albert Pretzinger in 1927.