chasingIndianapolis-basedDuesenberg,
thedivisionusedthesameareafortesting.
Withworkspacenowatapremium,Cord
neededafacilityforthemanagementand
displayofvehicles.
Auburn’snewShowroomandAd-
ministration building was designed in the
late Twenties by architect Alvin Strauss,
of nearby Fort Wayne; his earlier works
included the Lincoln Bank Tower, and
the Embassy Theater and Indiana Hotel.
Strauss’ plan called for a two-story
U-shaped facility featuring a stylistic brick
and limestone façade. Passing through the
main entrance, guests were welcomed
by a mezzanine, supported by ornate
columns, overlooking a geometric pat-
terned tri-tone terrazzo floor. Immense
windows—adorned with the names of
Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg—provid-
ed ample natural light around the perim-
eter, while nearly two dozen triple-tiered
opalescent glass chandeliers hung from
ornate fixtures, in addition to 27 column-
mounted sconces. The 12,000-square-foot
showroom perfectly complemented the
opulence of the three makes.
The first floor’s north wing was office
space for the switchboard, timekeeper,
mailroom, and factory superintendent,
while both floors of the south wing were
occupied by the experimental engineer-
ing department. Attention to detail was
extended here as well, and that included a
dead-level terrazzo floor that allowed the
engineering team to make precise, quality-
control measurements of completed cars.
This level also included a dynamometer
room. The remaining space on the second
floor was configured with the offices of
E.L. Cord, a design studio, restrooms, and
the accounting, advertising, export, and
purchasing departments.
Built in 1929 along South Wayne
Street on the southern edge of the down-town, the Auburn Automobile Company
officially moved into the 66,000-square-
foot facility on September 13, 1930. The
offices witnessed a rise in production,
the cancellation and rebirth of the Cord
automobile, and eventually the long-term
effects of a struggling economy, plus an in-
vestigation by the Securities and Exchange
Commission, which ultimately shuttered
company doors in 1937.
Cleveland, Ohio, businessman Dallas
Winslow purchased the assets, including
the Auburn complex and remaining partsinventory—a habit of the entrepreneur,
who also had purchased Hupmobile and
Graham-Paige—and used the facility as a
parts and restoration center as the Auburn-
Cord-Duesenberg Company. In 1960,
Winslow sold the campus to the Marshall
Clothing Company, concurrent to the sale
of his A-C-D interests to Stanley Lindell
of Auburn. During 1966, Marshall’s assets
were liquidated via bankruptcy sale; Ohio
scrap iron dealer Sam Jacobs now held
title to a complex that was ebbing into the
realm of ill repair. Industrial warehousing,The second floor houses many rare and highly interesting automobiles, including this
gorgeous recreation of the 1931 Cord L-29 Speedster; fate of the original car is unknown.Body-less chassis
is that of a 1926
Duesenberg Model A,
featuring a 90-hp,
260-cu.in. overhead-
cam straight-eight.
Engine (left) is
a 12-cylinder
Duesenberg-built
Bugatti engine
with twin upright
cylinder heads.Highly decorative artwork is actually samples
of all the different speedometer and multi-
gauge instrument faces that were proposed.78 Hemmings classic car october 2019 I Hemmings.com