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Wills Sainte Claire: 1925
San Francisco circa 1925. "Wills Sainte Claire Six seven-passenger sedan at Lafayette Park." 5x7 inch glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.
Wills Museum
Maybe the company produced only 12,000 cars, but nevertheless there is a Wills Sainte Claire Auto Museum!
And, by the way, Wills had also his own emblem, the "Wills Gray Goose."
One of the few flat spots
I wonder if those are the same trees?
Where there's a Wills
The Wills Sainte Claire Company was founded by C. Harold Wills. He named it after himself, of course, and the Saint Clair river that ran by his factory, but with added 'e's for extra fanciness. The company produced only 12,000 cars from 1921 to 1927. The cars were solid and advanced, but hard to repair and expensive.
Wills was Henry Ford's associate starting from Ford's racing days. He developed the Model T's planetary gear, pushed for vanadium steel for lightness, and even designed the blue Ford logo. After his company went bust, he was okay - he had also invested in steel companies producing vanadium steel!
Fun fact
In 1907, C. Harold Wills designed the Ford script logo.
Beautiful, but how do you fit seven?
That's a swell car. but how do you get seven people in it?
Checker cabs had folding jump-seats, facing aft. So maybe this car is similar: you put three across in the back row, and then add two more, on the folding seats, facing back.
[Correct. - Dave]
Shiny!
On this and other photos of cars of that era it becomes obvious how much effort their owners (or drivers?) spent taking care of them and polishing them to perfection.
Mr. Versatility
If your vehicle has a Blue Oval on its nose or your pocket knife holds a sharp edge, you can thank C. Harold Wills.
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