Judkins

The Judkins, Merrimac, and Waterhouse Companies were loosely related. The John B. Judkins Company was founded in 1857 at West Amesbury, Massachusetts. The municipality of Amesbury was later renamed Merrimac, and known as Carriage Hill because so many coachbuilding shops were located in that part of New England.

Judkins' partner was Isaac Little. His two sons joined the company, Frederick B. in 1883, and Charles H. in 1891.

About five years before the turn of the century, Judkins began building automobile bodies for Colonel Pope of Hartford. The firm built luxury Brougham horse carriages until about 1910, at which time they went exclusively to automobile coach building.

In the early years, Judkins built over a thousand bodies for the Winton Motor Car Company. In 1918, Stanley L. Judkins opened Merrimac Body Company to handle the overflow work from the main Judkins plant. It mostly produced Packards and DuPont bodies, and was closed in 1933.

Sergeant and Charles Waterhouse both worked for Judkins prior to forming their own coach building company in 1928. Waterhouse custom built several styles of Lincoln coach bodies until 1933. The famous Ford stylist John F. Dobben worked at Judkins in the 1920s, and designer/artist R.L. Stickney went to work at Judkins when LeBaron closed its New York offices to avoid a move to Detroit. One of the notable designs built by Judkins was the Lincoln Coupe deVoyage. It was a personal favorite of Mr. Judkins, and was drafted by Herman A. Kapp and Hugo Pfau of LeBaron.

The famous 1926 Lincoln Model L Coaching Brougham, based on the Concord stagecoach, was built by Judkins. This rare coachbuilt was on display at Henry Ford's Wayside Inn for years. Judkins also built the custom body coach for cowboy movie star Tom Mix's Pierce-Arrow Club Coupe. The main Judkins facility continued to build auto bodies until 1938.

(text source: Story Domain)