Derham Body Company of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
was a custom coachbuilding company founded by Irish
wheelwright
A wheelwright is a craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright", (which comes from the Old English word "''wryhta''", meaning a worker or shaper of wood) as in shipwright and arkwr ...
Joseph Derham (1865-1928)
[Coachbuilt.com]
accessed June 25, 2017 in 1887 to make carriages. As automobiles became more popular their clientele asked Derham to provide bodies for their cars.
[Hugo Pfau, ''The Coachbuilt Packard'', Darlton Watson, London 1973 ] It was claimed only New York's
Brewster had a similar reputation.
[
Following ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
Derham's business steadily declined. Most competitors had already been destroyed by the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. After the retirement of the last of the founder's sons in 1971 the entire premises were used as a Ferrari dealership.[
]
Carriages
Derham's Landau
Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990) ...
s, Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
s, Meadowbrooks, Phaetons and Broughams were much in demand by Philadelphia's élite.[ Their requirements changed to automobile bodies.
]
Automobile bodies
To cope with the increased activity Derham required larger premises so a purpose-built plant was erected in Rosemont, Pennsylvania where many of their customers lived.[
]
Custom bodies
Derham always made one-off custom bodies but they were financially stabilised by taking on regular series production work.
Semi-custom bodies
From early on dealers would order more than one body of a particular design and this cost-saving practice grew to become short production runs of perhaps 20 or more identical automobiles.[
Cars made before the 1930s were mostly formal and intended to be chauffeur-driven but by the end of the 1920s Derham was making attractive convertibles and they became the bulk of production.][
Derham developed their own distinctive automobile body style. Most of their bodies were built in series on Packards and Hudsons but they continued to build one-off cars on any chassis their customer required.][
During the 1930s Derham survived by building some bodies on Ford V8s and by taking on a Plymouth - De Soto dealership. Once war began they moved to building mobile canteens for Philadelphia's shipyards. Aircraft components were added to their productions line.][
]
To combat cost increases Derham took to amending standard sedan bodies making them into limousines and also changing appearance by fixing soft padding over the standard sedan's top. Most of the standard structure remained intact. This allowed Derham to survive into the postwar period.[
Business Week wrote about Derham Body in their April 22, 1950 issue. Derham reprinted it listing some current and former clients:
Raymond Loewy, Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Spellman, ]Duke of Windsor
Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937 for the former monarch Edward VIII, following his abdication on 11 December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, ...
, Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
, Cole Porter, Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, ...
, Louis B Mayer, James Forrestal
James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.
Forrestal came from a very strict middle-class Irish Catholic fami ...
, Herbert Pulitzer, Lily Pons
Alice Joséphine Pons (April 12, 1898 – February 13, 1976), known professionally as Lily Pons, was a French-American operatic soprano and actress who had an active career from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. As an opera singer, she s ...
, Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...
, Bernard Baruch, Rodman Wanamaker and Marjorie Merriweather Post Davies.[
During 1956 Derham built a prototype Lincoln Continental Mark II convertible but Ford's project did not result in any more cars.][
]
Garthwaite
The Derham business and its building were sold to Al Garthwaite in 1964 when business had been reduced to armoring Cadillac and Lincoln limousines and restoration of classic cars.[
]
Floyd-Derham
Disagreements after the founder's death led to one of his sons going out on his own with William Floyd, a European car importer. Floyd-Derham exhibited for the first time in the fall of 1928. The onset of the depression led Floyd to pull out of the partnership and Philip Derham began to work for Duesenberg.[
The Derham archives are kept by the Classic Car Club of America.][
]
References
{{Commons category, Derham Body
Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers
Coachbuilders of the United States
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States
1887 establishments in Pennsylvania
Manufacturing companies established in 1887
Manufacturing companies based in Philadelphia