J.P. Stevens stabled his fleet behind his very impressive house in this garage in Rome, NY, were he lived, which is about an hour west of Albany, NY. Stevens appears to have been part of the J.P. Stevens & Co., a large textile firm founded in 1813, that is still operation today.
Stevens could afford the best and at the time and that was a Mercedes-Simplex 60 h.p., one of which with its oval lamps is what you see parked on the far left of the garage. Just to the left of it is a beautiful quarter-sawn oak oil-dispenser with a smaller portable unit on top of it. The walls and ceiling are covered in wainscoting with a high gloss finish and decorated with period lithographs. The windows have the shades drawn, possibly to protect the cars varnished finishes from sun light or to keep excess light from spoiling the photograph.
The second car from the left in this impressive garage is a 1904 or earlier Winton. The car in the middle is an unknown and is likely to be older the its mates to the left. The last two cars on the right, the first being a touring car and the second a roadster have the appearance of being early steamers.
The garage is also equipped with a hanging lighting fixture in the center of the ceiling and off on the far right, next to the wall can be seen a cast iron radiator, which tells us that it was heated by central heat and was a well equipped and modern garage at the time.
We will show you two more photos of the very impressive house and garage soon, along with the Mercedes, the chauffeur, the footman and also J.P. Stevens posing out in front of the house. We will also include more infor-mation about the 60 h.p. Mercedes, the general design of which, was copied and imitated by most all automobile makers at the time.
The Mercedes was one of the hottest things on wheels then and a S. B. Stevens, who if memory serves us right, was also from Rome, NY and was an early racer. He is seen just below in the number 28, 60 h.p. Mercedes, racing Sardoni on the beach at Ormond-Daytona in the 1905 Speed meet. S. B. Stevens was quite involved with early racing and also had profession drivers race his car for him later on.
If any of our readers can help, we would like to know the following; The makers of the car in the middle of the garage along with the two on the right. Can anyone provide a positive connection between J.P. and S. B. Stevens? Photo above courtesy of Edward Fiore. Photo below from Auto Topics, April 1905 issue.
