You can’t talk about Cincinnati history or the city’s history museum without discussing the Crosley automobile. The Crosley Corporation produced a series of subcompact cars that are as cute as can be. They didn’t operate for a long time (1939-1952 with a break during the war years) but they certainly left their mark on the automobile industry.
They made the first mass produced automobile with an overhead camshaft engine that was affordable to the masses. They made a sports car, a truck, a convertible and station wagon like the one on display at the Ohio History center.
This 1951 Super Station Wagon is part of the permanent collection at the Cincinnati History Museum. It got an impressive 30- 50 miles per gallon at a top speed of around sixty miles per hour. According to the signage with the vehicle, the 1951 and 1952 models of this car came with this nifty little propeller on the front of the car.
Crosley Corporation and company founder Powell Crosley gave us the Shelvador refrigerator, a first to offer shelves inside the door. Powell owned the Cincinnati Reds for a while, broadcasting the games on his powerful WLW AM radio station which broadcast to homes across the Midwest on inexpensive radios he manufactured and sold to households nationwide.
The pictured vehicle was donated to the museum in honor of Jean and Houston Crosley. Houston was the grandson of Powell Crosley, Jr. Incidentally, they are buried at Spring Grove Cemetery along with many other members of the Crosley family.
Read about Spring Grove Cemetery here.
Not at all familiar with the Crosleys. Very interesting. I think Ford might take exception to the mass produced and affordable to the masses statement.😉
I swear Eilene, I need you to proofread me sometimes. I had left out a few words from that sentence that I needed to look up in the book about them. And then forgot to do it……thank you!!!
There is a great book about the Crosley brothers and their contributions to the world through ingenuity and a sense that things should be affordable to all rather than just the wealthy. They did some crazy stuff along the way too.
It’s called Crosley: Two Brothers and a Business Empire That Transformed the Nation
Normally I wouldn’t correct a blogger in the comments, but that was kind of amusing. Hope you don’t mind. They do sound like a family of vision and characters in their own right.
Haha. No! Not at all! I absolutely want the information to be correct. My favorite fact about them is that they thought to out a shelf in the fridge door.
Love the historic significance!