Saturday 24th November 1900

The first gasoline-powered Pierce motor vehicle featuring a modified one-cylinder deDion 3 hp engine, was taken on a test drive through the streets of Buffalo, New York. The vehicle, christened the Pierce Motorette, and between 1901 and 1903 roughly 170 Pierce Motorettes were made. In 1903, Pierce began manufacturing its own engines, and later in the year, the Pierce Arrow was introduced, followed by the Pierce Great Arrow in 1904. By 1905, the George N. Pierce Company was producing some of the biggest and most expensive motor cars in America, with prices in excess of $5,000. In 1908, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company was officially launched, and in 1909 US President William Howard Taft ordered two of the prestigious cars, a Brougham and a Landaulette, for use by the White House.