Butler was a center of car manufacturing from 1909 until 1941.

Next week, the Pacific Bantam Austin Club and the American Austin Bantam Club are holding a joint rally in Butler to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the American Austin, one of the cars produced here.

The Austin, predecessor to the Bantam, was built in Butler from 1930 to 1935. The American Austin Car Co. was the third car manufacturer in Butler.

The first car built in the city was the Huselton, a seven-passenger touring sedan built in a garage on North Washington Street from about 1909 to 1915, said Lee Bortmas, director of the Heritage Museum on New Castle Street.

He said the company, owned by Ed Huselton, produced only a dozen cars, one truck and a hearse.

For a brief period in the 1920s, the Standard Steel Car Co., which manufactured train cars, built the Standard Vestibule, a seven-passenger sedan with a jump seat in the back, Bortmas said.

Later in the decade, local banker Elias Ritts and businessman Carl Cheeseman went to New York City and met with Sir Hubert Austin, whose company built the Austin Seven in Britain, named for it engine's horsepower.

The cars were also built in France, Germany and Japan.

Ritts and Cheeseman gained Austin's approval to build an Austin in Butler. They increased the car's power, using a 14-horsepower, 4-cylinder engine. Its wheelbase was a mere 75 inches.

The American Austin Car Co. produced 10 models of the small cars and trucks from 1930 to 1935, but wound up closing after filing for bankruptcy.

Miami businessman Roy Evans reorganized the company, had the vehicles redesigned and started the American Bantam Car Co., which produced a line of 13 models of cars and trucks from 1938 to 1940.

The wheelbase remained only 75 inches, but the horsepower was increased to 20 and later 22.

Bortmas said Evans had 83 new and used dealerships in the United States and visited them frequently, using cars from the lots while on his trips.

Once, he was driving a Bantam coupe hardtop along Rodeo Drive in Hollywood.

"He came across a garage, Custom Motors, owned by Sid Luft, whose business partner was actress Eleanor Powel.

"When they were not making movies, they customized cars for the movie stars," Bortmas said.

The company's automobile designer Alex Tremulis greeted Evans.

"Evans told him he owned the Bantam Car Company," Bortmas said. "He said, 'We build a convertible but it's not very satisfactory. You have to get out of the car to put up the top.'"

A side window also had to be buttoned into place. The roof leaked, had drafts and the car was cold in winter.

Tremulis told Evans, "What I will do is cut the steel roof off. In its place I will fit a lightweight convertible top. I will construct it so there will be channels in the top so once it's in place you can simply wind up your windows and have a weatherproof top."

Evans paid $550 to have the work done, had a more powerful engine delivered, and asked Tremulis to drive it to Butler.

The Bantam Hollywood was born.

Tremulis wound up staying in Butler for several months, and designed the Speedster and Riviera convertibles, Bortmas said.

Bantam produced a total of only 6,700 vehicles by the time production ceased in 1940.

That year, U.S. Army representatives came to Butler to meet with Bantam officials about designing and building a prototype of a four-wheel drive truck that could carry 500 pounds, have a 40 horsepower engine and a wheelbase of about 80 inches. The first vehicle had to be delivered in 49 days.

On July 17, Bantam engineer Karl Probst began designing the vehicle and finished the next day.

On Sept. 23, 1940, Probst and Frank Fenn, Bantam's president, delivered the Bantam Reconnaissance Car, or BRC-40, to Camp Holabird, Md.

The Army, which owned the design, ordered 1,500 of what would be known as the jeep, from each of three carmakers, Bantam, Ford and Willys-Overland.

Bantam filled its order, but couldn't keep up with the demand. Ford and Willys went on to build thousands of the vehicles.

Bantam shipped its last jeeps to the British in 1941, the last vehicles built in Butler.

The Heritage Museum has a 1939 Bantam Hollywood, a 1940 Bantam Speedster, a 1941 jeep and the original 1941 Bantam factory delivery truck converted from a jeep.

Bob Brandon of Center Township donated a 1931 Austin coupe to the museum. The car is currently being restored to look like a Diehle Bakery salesman's car.

It also has a 1921 English Austin Seven, which was the forerunner of the Austin built in Butler from 1930 to 1935.

Four of the five Butler-built vehicles were made in the same plant off what is now Bantam Avenue: the Standard, Austin, Bantam and jeep.

The Heritage Museum, 119 W. New Castle St., is open to the public from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sundays between April and August.

Some information in this report was supplied by the American Austin Bantam Club.