1909 Pierce-Arrow Model 36

FROM THE DICK SHAPPY COLLECTION: The 1909 Pierce Arrow UU 36 HP

Pierce-Arrow was an American automobile manufacturer from Buffalo, New York, known for their luxury cars. They produced expensive vehicles from 1901 until 1938, when they closed their doors due to the Great Depression.

George N. Pierce was a bicycle manufacturer. His industrial experience, however, was far more diverse, beginning as a partner in Heintz, Pierce and Munschauer, a Buffalo, New York company that made bird cages. As the nineteenth century progressed, the firm branched out into ice boxes and bath tubs. After Pierce bought out his partners in 1872, he renamed the company for himself and embarked on pedal-powered transportation. Taking notice of the interest in self-propelled vehicles, he built a steam car in 1900.

By that November, a gasoline-powered car was operating, and in 1901, the manufacturing of a DeDion-engined Motorette began. A defining moment in the evolution of the Pierce automobile came in 1904, with the introduction of the four-cylinder Great Arrow. Pierces son Percy drove one in the inaugural 1905 Glidden Tour, winning the reliability contest hands down. Pierces took the Glidden trophy for the next four events

The early Pierce cars were principally the work of David Fergusson, a British-born engineer of Scots ancestry. He joined Pierce in 1901 and laid out the design for the companys Motorette and Arrow models. In 1905, as the chief engineer, he toured Europe with Manufacturing Vice-President Henry May. They visited all the British and Continental automobile factories, looking at design trends and manufacturing methods. In particular, they noted the move to larger cars with six-cylinder engines. This would set the pattern for Pierce-Arrow cars for the next 15 years

The first six-cylinder Pierce was the Model 65-Q, introduced in 1907. Like the fours that preceded it, the new powerplant was of T-head configuration, displacing an impressive 648 cubic inches. A smaller, 40 horsepower six, the 40-S, was added in 1908. The last Pierce fours were built in 1909, but that year there were three sixes of 36, 48, and 60 horsepower

Pierce and Arrow became so linked in the public eye that both car and company were renamed Pierce-Arrow in 1909. By then, Pierce-Arrows, which sold for $3,050 to $7,200, had joined Packard and Peerless in comprising the Three Ps of luxury American motor manufacture

Several iterations of the six-cylinder Pierce-Arrow would be made, among them the 36-horsepower Model 36-UU of 1909, a potent T-head machine of considerable brio for its small size.

The Model 36-UU offered here has a wonderful heritage, having been discovered by the pioneering American enthusiast Warren Kraft in the 1940s in Mike Carusos Long Island junkyard, a fount of finds in the early years of the hobby. Kraft rescued the car and sold it to Winford Smith; it was fitted with homemade bodywork and used on several early hobby events, and later passed into the ownership of their contemporary, US Steel chairman James Bragg. It eventually came into the hands of enthusiast Bob Robinson of Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, who in 2002 undertook the present restoration, with the body reproduced as an excellent recreation of the 1909 Model 36-UU runabout, with its distinctive third mother-in-law seat. Upon inspection, indications are that the chassis was further rebuilt, including replacement cross-members.

In 2004 the car was sold by Mr. Robinson to the respected New England collector and enthusiast, the late George Grew. Mr. Grew maintained the Pierce well for the rest of his life, enjoying taking it for drives and occasionally exhibiting it, most prominently at the 2009 Newport Concours dElegance, where it received the award as the best American sports car.

According to George Grews daughter Janice, the Pierce Runabout was the final car love of his life. As a former midget car driver back in the 1940s and 50s, which he gave up when he married my mom, this car was the best combination of a beautiful and desirable antique car with plenty of speed. Despite an old race car superstition against driving green cars, which he always repeated, he bought this green 1909 Pierce and loved it.

The Pierce-Arrow was sold from the Grew estate in 2012 to the present owner [Dick Shappy], himself an avid enthusiast of Brass Era automobiles, who has continued to maintain it well and to actually use it on local roads, with the aid of 12-volt ignition and an alternator. Its restoration remains highly attractive, in deep green with gold striping on the chassis, and highlights of copper plating to the headlamps, hood, and steering column. The brass radiator with its Pierce-Arrow script, brass Rushmore headlights and Solar side lamps, and flying eagle radiator mascot are all splendid touches, as well

The headlamps, hood, and steering column are highlighted with copper plating, and the chassis is pinstriped in gold on the bold green background. Matching green buttoned leather upholsters the seats, and diamond-pattern white rubber lines the running boards. The engine compartment shines, too, with plenty of polished copper and brass.

This is a Pierce-Arrow of abundant charm!

-RM Sothebys


It has been outfitted for convenient touring with an electric starter, discretely hidden alternator, and fire extinguisher It is a concours quality automobile of the highest grade. A charismatic automobile that is exciting even while standing still. On the road, it is reliable, exciting, and quite fast.

-Tom LaFerriere


This Pierce-Arrow Model 36-UU Runabout has been well-maintained and preserved. It is a charismatic Brass-era automobile while sitting still and one of only ten surviving examples.

-Tag: The Geo. N. Pierce Co. Buffalo, NY,

+Car No: UU149

+Motor No: 30149

+HP: 36

-386.5 cu.

-T-head Six-Cylinder Engine

-Four-Speed Manual Transmission

-Solid Front Axle with Semi-Elliptic Leaf Springs

-Live Rear Axle with Three-Quarter Elliptic Leaf Springs

-Two-Wheel Mechanical Drum Brakes

-Wheelbase: 119 in.

-Green Diamond-Tufted Leather Interior

-Eagle Mascot Hood Ornament

-Solar Side Lamps

-Double Twist Horn

-The Automatic Shaking Grate Generator by Rushmore Dynamo Works of Plainfield, NJ

-Tag: Licensed Under Selden- Patent No 549.160 Patented November 5, 1895 #85076

-Waltham Watch Co. 8-Day Clock

-Hans Gasoline Gauge Patented 1907 from Edmund E. Hans Co. Minneapolis, Minn.

-Warner Auto-Meter, The Rushmore Searchlight manufactured by Rushmore Dynamo Works of Plainfield, NJ

-Show-Ready

-Registration & US Title

Awarded "Most Elegant Sports Car" at Amelia Island's Concours Show, which attests to the extremely high quality of this restoration. Audrain Veteran Car Tour 2022 & 2024.