T Figure 12: The Dagmar Hotel. From promotional brochure. he Auto Factories and Moller Apartments

M.P. Moller’s outside business interests did not end with the Dagmar Hotel. He also entered the automobile business during the 1920s at approximately the same time that production was peaking in his organ business. Moller’s automobile ventures also had a lasting impact on the urban fabric of Hagerstown, and while the auto building industry itself no longer exists in the town, the structures Moller acquired in the course of this venture continue to carry on this man’s entrepreneurial legacy.

Automobile manufacturing began in Hagerstown in 1903. Col. Albert Pope, who had been a bicycle maker, decided to buy the Crawford Manufacturing Plant and used it to produce new automobiles. Pope used his factory at 901 Pope Avenue for his business, but an economic recession in 1907 caused him to put the company into receivership and the factory closed. After the sale of his business, Crawford used the money to start his own automobile manufacturing plant. With backing from M.P. Moller and other investors, Crawford turned his stable at the corner of Surrey and Summit Avenues into a new factory building. In 1922, Moller became the majoroity stockholder in the company and essentially took over the entire business. In that year, Moller began production of his own luxury automobile car: the Dagmar.

M
Figure 13: Dagmar automobile. From Washington County Historical Society.

“In 1923 the boilers in the Summit Avenue plant of the Crawford Automobile Company [Moller would change the name to the Moller Motor Car Co. in 1924] were found to be in need of major repairs or replacement. A decision was made to move manufacturing and assembling into a large building at 901 Pope Avenue. In the intervening years since the end of auto production, the Pope Avenue plant had been used …for the production of war materials during World War I and more recently for the manufacturing of steel caskets. Huge metal presses were already in the Pope Avenue plant. Other equipment was moved from the Summit Avenue location. The relocation was completed by the end of the year.”²¹

While the Dagmar sedans were luxurious, the bulk of Moller’s orders were from taxicab companies. The company’s first order came from the Luxor Cab Manufacturing Company of New York in late 1923. The order was for 300 taxicabs at a cost of $700,000.²³ Until production ceased in the 1930s, Moller Motor Cars made taxis that were used in Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Despite its success, the Company closed in 1938 shortly after M.P. Moller’s death.