For the Love of Cars
/Guest blog by Kristen Fehlhaber, Assistant Director
This rare, low-number plate with Newburyport roots was recently donated to the Museum of Old Newbury by the Dodge family.
The recent article on Christiana Morgan elicited several interesting responses from readers. Will Rogers of Newburyport wrote to us, remembering his aunt fondly. Thus began a conversation about Christiana and her sisters Elizabeth and Isabella. Will’s mother was Dr. Elizabeth Councilman, a practicing physician in Newburyport from the 1930s-1970s. Her office was in her home at 83 High Street, right across the street from the Museum of Old Newbury. In addition to his mother the physician and his aunt the Jungian analyst, I asked Will about the third sister, thinking she must have led an interesting life as well. This led to a vivid memory of his “Aunt Bay,” an accomplished musician with peculiar car.
Aunt Bay played concert bass and when Will’s high school orchestra performed, she’d drive out from Cambridge to accompany them. The bass poked out of the roof and it was Will’s job to help her bring it in. The car was a tan 1960s Saab 96 with a rag top. It also had an engine that Will remembered as “silly:” a two-stroke that required the owner to mix oil with gas before filling the tank.
“That’s it!” said Will. A 1961 Saab Model 96. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
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Filling the tank might become a thing of the past. The first rumble and roar of classic cars out for Sunday drives started here in New England a few weeks ago, but how much longer will we be hearing those engines? Electric cars are becoming more common and a new EPA proposal announced this week would make gas engines increasingly rare. The first car dealership in Newburyport, opened in April 1905 on Liberty Street, actually featured an electric Pope Waverly car. They were largely marketed to women drivers because of the ease of operations (no gas or steam engine to mess with).
A 1905 electric car from the Pope Motor Car Company catalog. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
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A recent visitor to the Museum shared some stories of his great-grandfather's place in Newburyport’s automobile history. Laurence Paine Dodge (1885-1965) known as “L.P.,” grew up in a mansion at 71 High Street, the youngest child of shoe manufacturer E.P. Dodge.
Built in 1885, this house left the Dodge family in 1926 and was torn down in the late 1930s.
L.P.’s father died on September 30, 1902 at age 54. Just ten days later, on October 10, the 17-year-old became the owner of Newburyport’s first gas-powered car. It was a 1902 Oldsmobile, the first car produced on an assembly line, sporting a curved dashboard and a tiller instead of a steering wheel. We don’t know if this was a gift to comfort the newly fatherless youth; we do know that L.P. remained passionate about cars and driving for the rest of his life.
L.P. in his 1902 Oldsmobile. Top speed was 20 mph. Photo courtesy Laurence P. Dodge II.
n 1902, Newburyport wasn’t prepared for gasoline powered automobiles. There was no filling station, so L.P. fueled his car with five-gallon cannisters that he filtered with chamois cloth, both bought from William Dole at the corner of High and Parker Street in Newbury. L.P. didn’t have to tolerate this inconvenience for long; a gas tank was soon installed at his mother’s house on High Street.
L.P. got his gasoline at Dole’s grocery. The other ads on these pages show that the horse-drawn era was still going strong. 1901-02 Newburyport City Directory.
L.P. got a two-digit plate for this car when license plates became required in 1903. At some point, he lost the rights to the number due to a paperwork issue. However, in 1932, he finagled a way to get plate number 696, which he held onto for the rest of his life.
Based on the number, this plate comes from 1904. Image courtesy porcelainplates.net
L.P.’s granddaughter, Adelaide, remembers that in the 1950s, L.P. lived at 106 High Street and had a pink Nash Rambler convertible, nicknamed “the Shrimp Boat.”
A fine sight on High Street! The Nash Rambler featured bright colors and was compact compared to other American cars at the time. Image courtesy of amcrc.com.
The 696 license plate was even mentioned in L.P.'s obituary! The plate passed down to his daughter Mimi, his granddaughter Anzie, and currently belongs to great-grandson Laurence P. Dodge II of Melrose who said his great-grandfather might not be pleased about his own choice of car.
Laurence P. Dodge II and his 2019 Honda Fit on Fruit Street, sporting the family license plate. Laurence is holding a cup given to L.P. from the Tuesday Night Club. He donated the cup and a license plate to the Museum of Old Newbury.
Laurence says that rules have become stricter and plates can only be passed on to immediate family, meaning that he will be the last Dodge to have plate 696.
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Back to Will Rogers – he reports that he and his brother Henry, both still living in Newburyport, have their parents’ original license plate numbers from when they moved here in the 1930s. Will has 66132 (his father’s), Henry has 66137 (his mother’s). How Will, the younger brother, got the lower number is a story for another time!
If you covet a low-number plate, you don’t need L.P.’s friends in high places – the allotment of these sought-after numbers is controlled in Massachusetts by an annual lottery . With thanks to Laurence P. Dodge II for his generous help with this story. Some details of L.P.’s early driving career come from an interview with him from the Newburyport Daily News, October 2, 1962.