Back in Connecticut.
Boston entrepreneur Albert A. Pope saw a display of European bicycles in the late 1870s. He started importing some and contracted for a Hartford manufacturer to make others under the "Columbia" brand.
By the mid-1890s, Pope was manufacturing about a quarter million bicycles a year in Hartford. He went on to manufacture automobiles. Pope is credited as the first automobile manufacturer to use mass production techniques, but competition was intense and he went bankrupt in 1907.
In 1895 Pope donated 90 acres for a Hartford public park.
The Olmsted brothers did the original design.
And in 1991, they gave up on the bicycles.
ReplyDeleteA distinctive column.
ReplyDeleteSo many changes in the last 150 years.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1950s Columbia bicycles were the main competition with Schwinn bikes. I have heard of Pope autos, but have never seen one. Interesting history.
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