Consolidation at South Bend: the works in the 1920s

1920 – 1929

The cars come home: Studebaker's early automobiles had been built in Detroit, in the plants taken from E-M-F. The 1920 Light Six was, in the museum archivist's statement of the record, the first automobile built at South Bend — the works' own car production beginning sixty-eight years after the wagon shop. Through the decade the Detroit operations were drawn in: in 1926 the last of the Detroit plant was moved to South Bend under Harold S. Vance, vice president in charge of production and engineering, leaving only the Piquette plant in Detroit assembling, in turn, the Erskine (1927–29) and the Rockne (1931–33).

The plant at full stretch: The 1920s works were enormous. The corporation's total plant area in the decade stood at 225 acres across three locations, its buildings occupying 7.5 million square feet of floor space, with an annual production capacity of 180,000 cars requiring 23,000 employees. At South Bend the old vehicle plant continued in forgings, springs, and body parts; separate buildings totaling over a million square feet were added in 1922–23 — among them the great Building 84 of 1923, six stories and more than 800,000 square feet, built to Albert Kahn's design for body work and final assembly — and at any one time 5,200 bodies were in process. Plant 2's foundry, 575,000 square feet, produced 600 tons of castings a day.

The proving ground: In 1926 Studebaker became the first automobile manufacturer in the United States to open a controlled outdoor proving ground — some 840 acres west of the city near New Carlisle, with a three-mile oval; in 1937 five thousand pine trees were planted there in a pattern that spelled STUDEBAKER from the air. Its later history is carried in the proving-ground entry at the end of this section.

Erskine's expansion and its price: Albert Russel Erskine, who had replaced Fred Fish as president in July 1915, ran the company as a growth enterprise. The Erskine Six, a new small car named for him, was launched in Paris in 1926 and sold 26,000 abroad in its first season with many more in America. Paul G. Hoffman, the corporation's most successful distributor, came to South Bend in 1925 as vice president in charge of sales. By 1929 the sales list had expanded to fifty models and business was so good that 90 percent of earnings were being paid out as dividends. That dividend policy — continued into the Depression — is where the next act begins.

Sources:

1. South Bend Tribune (2026) — Beckman: the 1920 Light Six as the first South Bend-built automobile, and no other wagon maker making the transition.
2. Standard encyclopedia history of Studebaker — the 1926 Detroit consolidation under Vance and the Piquette plant's remaining work, the 225 acres, 7.5 million square feet, 180,000-car capacity and 23,000 employees of the 1920s facilities, the 1922–23 additions and 5,200 bodies in process, the foundry's 600 tons a day, the 1926 proving ground and its 1937 tree sign, the Erskine Six's Paris launch and 26,000 foreign sales, Hoffman's arrival in 1925, Erskine's succession in July 1915, and the 90 percent dividend payout of 1929.
3. Hemmings, "Studebaker administration building: Revitalization?" — Building 84 built in 1923, six stories, more than 800,000 square feet, housing paint, trim, and final assembly; the building's design by Albert Kahn is carried in the 2026 account of the building cited in the works-today entry.