Stearns Steam Carriage Company
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| Automobile Manufacturing | |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Genre | Runabout, Stanhope |
| Fate | Poor performing vehicles |
| Founded | 1901 |
| Founder | Edward Carl Stearns |
| Defunct | 1904 |
| Headquarters | Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York, United States |
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Area served
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United States |
| Products |
Vehicles Automotive parts |
| Parent | E. C. Stearns & Company |
Stearns Steam Carriage Company (1901–1904) was a manufacturer of steam automobiles in Syracuse, New York, founded by Edward C. Stearns, an industrialist. Stearns built his first automobile in 1899, an electric which sold so few models through 1900 that the firm changed to steam power in 1901 when the company was incorporated. The company was also known as the Stearns Automobile Company.
The Stearns Steam Carriage Company, established in 1901, should not be confused with the F. B. Stearns and Company (later F.B. Stearns Company) a manufacturer of luxury cars in Cleveland, Ohio marketed under the brand names Stearns and Stearns-Knight. The company also had a factory in Syracuse.
Edward C. Stearns owned a hardware store in Syracuse. By the early 1890s E. C. Stearns & Company had branched into bicycle manufacturing with his E. C. Stearns Bicycle Agency which was founded in 1893.
Stearns moved into automobile production after building his first car in 1899. The prototype was built by J. S. Leggett and Stearn's engineer, F. L. Corey, and was an electric model. It was entered in the New York Automobile Show and won first prize that year. The automobile sold so few models through 1900 that the company changed to steam power in 1901.
By early February 1901, Herbert E. Maslin, treasurer, announced the company would have steam carriages on the market for the spring trade. He noted that the new factory was operating "with a large force of men." The work of "setting the vehicles ready for the trade" was progressing rapidly. A number of automobile dealers had recently visited the factory and were pleased with the equipment and goods manufactured at the plant. The company extensively remodeled the building formerly occupied by The Frontenac Company, a bicycle manufacturer of which George M. Barnes and Austin M. Dickinson were affiliated.
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