Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip

It reads like a movie script:  "Two men and a dog cross American continent in Winton roadster!"  Normally, such a story would not merit the first page of the newspaper.  However, back in 1903, such a trek was no small feat.

Photo of Horatio's Winton touring car courtesy www.pbs.org.

Horatio Nelson Jackson, a Vermont doctor on vacation in San Francisco, with no car and little driving experience, took a $50 dare to cross the United States in a horseless carriage.  He enlisted the aid of a local mechanic, Sewall K. Crocker, and the two men packed up his new Winton touring car in San Francisco, and headed east across the desert.  At only 20 horsepower, the touring car did not go very fast; of course, it had no roof or windshield so the drivers had to wear goggles.  In the day and age before paved roads (only 150 miles of the entire trek were paved), before gas stations, and before road maps, Dr. Jackson had to rely on his own resources.

Photo of Horatio's pit bull, Bud, courtesy www.pbs.org.

On the trek, the travelling companions saw caravans of pioneers in Conestoga wagons; they met cowboys with lariats which came in handy to tow their roadster out of sandhills; they encountered ranchers' wives who served them home-cooked meals for a chance to ride in the new automobile; and they even photographed Native Indians in full headdress (in the last days of the frontier).  They also met a pit bull in Idaho which Horatio adopted and named Bud; he was given his own pair of driving goggles.  The co-drivers crossed streams and saw buffalo wallow; they crossed railroad trestles over wide rivers; their roadster spooked horses not used to motorized vehicles.

Photo of Great Plains Indians courtesy http://1.bp.blogspot.com.

As word spread about Horatio's drive, crowds started to line the streets of the towns that he passed through.  Some locals would give him the wrong directions just so he would head through the town where that person's aunt or grandma or cousin lived.  What a spectacle to see a horseless carriage!  Nineteen hundred and three was the year that Henry Ford started his company; the age of the Model T was still 5 years away and the age of the car for the common man was still at least a a decade away.  Other car companies got in on the act:  Packard and Oldsmobile both dispatched vehicles with drivers to beat Dr. Jackson to New York City.

Photo of Henry Ford with Model T courtesy www.antiques-bible.com.

As Horatio crossed the country, he wrote letter after letter to his wife Bertha with accounts of his adventure:  the flat tires, the burnt out side lanterns, the fuel leak, running out of oil, the tainted water which made Horatio sick, the lost coat (with money inside), the broken drive chain and wheel bearings, and the list goes on.  Even so, Horatio retained an indomitable spirit, bent on finishing the trip that he had started.  After 63 1/2 days, on July 26, the roadster reached New York City.  The touring car had sucked up 800 gallons of gasoline.

Photo of New York City circa 1903 courtesy http://img262.imageshack.us.

The car later went into the Smithsonian Institution.  Dr. Jackson returned to Vermont with his dog, Bud where he lived out his life with his wife Bertha.   He later owned a newspaper, bank and radio station and became one of the founders of the American Legion.  Horatio once was fined for driving above the 6 mph speed limit in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont.

Display of Horatio Nelson Jackson, his dog Bud, and the Winton roadster at Smithsonian courtesy http://farm3.static.flickr.com.

Source:  www.en.wikpedia.org
              www.pbs.org/kenburns/films/horatio.html

For more information:

1.  Watch the Ken Burns documentary "Horatio's Drive:  America's First Road Trip".
2.  Read the book by the same name by Dayton Duncan & Ken Burns.

Dr. John Prentiss' "You Don't Own Me!" Speech

In the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, black physician John Prentiss, meets and falls in love with a young white woman, Katharine Drayton, while on vacation in Hawaii.  They return to the United States where they are invited to dinner at the Drayton's, played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, a liberal couple from San Francisco. The doctor's parents, who are also invited, fly in from Los Angeles.  Dr. Prentiss and Joanna drop a bombshell at the dinner table:  they are engaged.

The evening is passed in heated conversation over the pros and cons of a biracial marriage.  Mr. Drayton, a supposed liberal, is not prepared to practise what he preaches when it comes to his own daughter.  Dr. Prentiss' father feels that, because he carried a mail bag for 40 years to support his family, his son owes him something.  His son, however, responds with "You don't own me."  Here is an excerpt from Dr. Prentiss's speech, brilliantly delivered by actor Sidney Poitier:

"You've said what you had to say.  Now listen to me.  You say you don't want to tell me how to live my life?  So what do you think you've been doing?  You tell me what rights I've got or haven't got and what I owe to you for what you've done for me.  Let me tell you something.  I owe you nothing!  If you carried that bag a million miles, you did what you were supposed to do because you brought me into this world and from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me like I will owe my son if I ever have another.  But you don't own me!  You can't tell me when or where I'm out of line or try to get me to live my life according to your rules.  You don't even know what I am, Dad.  You don't know who I am.  You don't know how I feel, what I think.  And if I tried to explain it for the rest of your life, you will never understand.

You are 30 years older than I am.  You and your whole lousy generation believes that the way it was for you is the way it's got to be.  And not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs!  You understand?  You've got to get off my back!

Dad.  Dad.  You're my father.  I am your son.  I love you.  I always have and I always will.  But you think of yourself as a coloured man.  I think of myself as a man.  Hmm?  Now, I've got a decision to make.  And I've got to make it alone.  And I've got to make it in a hurry.  So would you get out there and see after my mother?" (http://www.filmsite.org/bestspeeches22.htm)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkGFOakMEmI

Jane Jacobs' "Downtown is For People"

"These projects will not revitalize the downtown; they will deaden it."

Jane Jacobs was a woman ahead of her time.  In 1958, she penned a prophetic essay for Fortune magazine called Downtown is for People.  City redevelopment projects were all the rage in the United States at the time.  Urban renewal was taking place in San Francisco, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, to name a few.  Jacobs warned that these projects would drive people away from the downtowns.  She suggested that city developpers focus on the buildings rather than on the blocks, focus on the people rather than the automobiles.  She said that rather than looking at the boulevards of Paris, city planners should "get out and walk" to acquire a feel for the city.  

Jacobs criticized the uniformity of these plans, the lack of originality:  "From city to city, the architect's sketches conjure up the same dreary scene; here is no hint of individuality or whim or surprise, no hint that here is a city with a tradition and flavor all its own." (http://fortune.com/2011/09/18/downtown-is-for-people-fortune-classic-1958/)

"All the truly great downtown focal points carry a surprise that does not stale," explained Jacobs.  She mentioned the Times Square Waterfalls and Boston's Arlington Street Church steeple (http://www.candidish.com/there-is-nothing-common-about-boston-common/).  To that list I add the Washington Monument and Chicago's Old Water Tower.  Jacobs' fear was that the downtowns would be razed, that the old classic buildings would be flattened.  The author praised New York's Rockefeller Center, a project that was planned around the existing buildings, a project that respected the existing streets.

Jacobs criticized American cities, stating:  "Waterfronts are a great asset but few cities are doing anything with them."  She mentioned how New Orleans remained detached from its river, the Mississippi; not one restaurant sat on its riverfront.  While Cleveland planned to build a convention centre on its waterfront, Jacobs thought that the choice of property was too isolated from the rest of the city.  On the other hand, Jacobs praised Chicago for the lack of barriers along the Chicago River, where the Wrigley Building and Sun Times Building sat, lending the city's visitors an inviting view (https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Chicago_River).

City planners might have read Jacobs 1958 essay for within a generation, waterfront regeneration had entered the American vocabulary, evident in projects like:  Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Boston's Quincy Market, New York's Pierhead Building, San Diego's Waterfront Village, and San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf (http://www.fishermanswharf.org/).

Historic preservation entered the American lexicon as well, starting with the National Historic Preservation Trust of 1949.  Museums and historic homes fell under this umbrella.  Historic preservation as part of downtown redevelopment became popular by the 1970's.  Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' campaign to save Grand Central Station, which started with an eloquently composed letter to New York City's mayor, is one such example   (http://www.citylab.com/politics/2013/02/surprising-role-jackie-kennedy-playing-saving-grand-central-station/4596/).  Philadelphia was the site of the first historic preservation commission in the United States, which helped preserve the city's treasures (http://juh.sagepub.com/content/39/2/193.abstract?rss=1).

Note:  For a blogger's take on "Downtown is for People" Fifty Years Later, check out http://streets.mn/2013/05/07/downtown-is-for-people-fifty-five-years-later/.

Downtown is for People drawing courtesy http://fortune.com/2011/09/18/downtown-is-for-people-fortune-classic-1958/.