Friday Mystery Foto #47 Solved: An ALCO Roadside Repair
Did you identify this ALCO racer during a roadside repair?
Identify;
- The automobile year and make. Link the auto to the Vanderbilt Cup Races
1909 ALCO-6 racer, one of 3 other sister cars of the 1909 ALCO Black Beast VCR winner built by ALCO
An Alco Racer and its Infamous Owner- Grover Cleveland Bergdoll
- The owner- What was his family famous for?
Grover Cleveland Bergdoll (1893-1966)
Bergdoll's family founded the Louis Bergdoll and Sons Brewing Company in 1849, which produced one of the most popular beers in the United States until 1951.
- What is he doing with the ring in the photo?
Repairing a flat tire.The ring was one of the components to the newly invented 'removable rim' being installed om automobiles at the time. Greg O’s Garage: Removable rims and their impact on early motoring and racing
- KUDOS- Identify the photographer of the photo
The photo was taken by Nathan Lazarnick who famously took many photographs of the construction of the Motor Parkway and Vanderbilt Cup Races.
Comments (4)
Congrats and Kudos to Steve Lucas and Art Kleiner for solving this challenging mystery photo.
Greg O.
Comments
That looks like a 1909 ALCO racer, similar to the 1909 and 1910 Vanderbilt Cup winner. This one was owned by Grover Cleveland Bergdoll who was part of the family that owned Louis Bergdoll & Sons Brewing Co. that produced beer from 1849 - 1951. It looks like he has just successfully changed a tire and is re-attaching the ring. The photo was taken by Nathan Lazarnick.
Alco - possibly 1909. Alco built racers for the Vanderbilt Cup race
Grover Cleveland Bergdoll - Family business was a Philadelphia based brewery. Became famous as a draft dodger.
Fixing a rim
Nathan Lazarnick is the photographer.
More . . .
The photo is looking NW. Love the old country-style wood fence. Wish I could identify the house in the background. The racer could be the 1908 40hp Knox; its driver William Bourque would be the first killed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway