Studebaker Electric Wagon Restoration

[studeclunker]

Oh dear me, in their shirtsleeves?? These young people, whatever are we to do with them?

Looks fabulous! However if that's the best speed it can do, I'll stick with my horses, thanks.

It must be immensely satisfying after all this time to take it out for a turn, finally. Thanks so much for sharing the photos, progress reports, and finally video! Do please forgive my levity and silliness too.

[studegary]

Congratulations on seeing this project through to completion!!

I find it hard to believe that a town exists with nice streets and NO traffic.

[Hallabutt]

Gary,

Harrington is really a living ghost town, if there is such a thing. One of many towns that sprung up across the West during the later part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. This is dryland wheat country, some of the most productive in the world. When it took a good day to travel to Spokane, these small towns grew up around the grain elevators. Beginning during the Depression, because of the economics of the time and because of better modes of transportation, their business districts became less important and many just went away.

Harrington is one of those places whose business districts just died. People still live in Harrington, but there is really no business district at all. You can't even get a hamburger in Harrington, or a cup of coffee for that matter. Several important things set Harrington apart from some of the other communities like it, however. It had a bunch of quality built brick and concrete buildings that really aged well. Then there was an energetic couple that fell in love with the idea of restoring the old hotel. The building needed literally millions of dollars and countless hours of their own time. It still remains to be seen whether the project will ever be completed, but the energy was exciting and remains. But maybe most important from our point of view, was that it was where Allen Barth lived.

Allen just lived his life by playing the game with a different set of rules. Nothing that I could say would due justice to this unique character. He lived his life on a different level then everyone else. He actually envisioned bringing Harrington back to life. He knew that he could never expect to bring back 1920, but he felt that on any given weekend he could make it a destination for old car hobbyists.

Paramount to his vision was the old Ford dealership in the center of town. It was owned by an elderly lady who had it's fifteen thousand square feet of space crammed with stuff. Things that Allen described as junk. It took him years of trying to buy the building, before he finally got her to sell. Then there was the immense amount of time that it took to clean it out, refurbish the building, before anointing it as his Studebaker garage. At the same time he ran his restoration business from his home, which was about ten miles away in the middle of a sea of wheat. Sadly Allen recently lost his battle with cancer, but not before much of what he envisioned had already come to fruition. Allen's dream lives on in his son and daughter. They have vowed to continue with what he started.

[Avantidon]

What a fantastic restoration. Congratulations to all who worked on the project. Thanks James Bell!

[8E45E]

Washington State did not start to issue license plates until 1905, so it will be interesting to see what the DMV requires to have it registered should you choose to go that route.

That doesn't make sense.

One is able to register a vehicle regardless of what year it is, just as one can also register a non-US market make/model if its over 25 years old. In 1905, do you think a vehicle would have been 'unregisterable' because it was older?

Craig

[Mark L]

Sorry, I should have explained myself better. I was thinking in terms of registering it as an antique with a year of make license plate (1902). James and Stephanie would be out of luck, since Washington didn't start issuing plates until 1905. They could certainly get a brand new antique vehicle plate.

[8E45E]

Sorry, I should have explained myself better. I was thinking in terms of registering it as an antique with a year of make license plate (1902). James and Stephanie would be out of luck, since Washington didn't start issuing plates until 1905. They could certainly get a brand new antique vehicle plate.

I don't believe the State of Washington actually issued plates until the early teens. Up until that time, one made their own, usually house numbers on a piece of leather:



Several other states/provinces also required vehicles being licenced a few years before they started issuing actual numbered plates.

Craig