Brooks Steam Motors

The company and its car were named for an American financier, Oland J. Brooks, who had relocated from Buffalo, New York, to Toronto in 1920.

In September 1923 a prototype car was shown at the Toronto Exhibition and the following month an agreement was reached with the city of Stratford, Ontario to purchase a former threshing machine factory for $55,000.

He styled the Brooks' power plant after the Stanley two-cylinder engine, rather than the more sophisticated (and costly to produce) Doble.

The Brooks cars were distinguished by their fabric bodies constructed from Meritas brand cloth by the American Auto Trimming Company in Walkerville, Ontario, Meritas being a composite material formed from wire netting, two layers of wadding, canvas and an outer layer of two-ply artificial leather.

Brooks styled its fabric bodies as though they were metal, using a conventional three-window sedan shape with a certain quantity of chromed fittings.

[1] Despite expectations of employing hundreds, by 1925 the factory had a mere 90 employees, with another 20 or so at service stations and showrooms in Montreal and Toronto.

[2] Most of the work was reported to consist of driving the cars throughout Canada, some accompanied by Oland J. Brooks, to promote the company.

One of the cars was shown at the October 1924 London automobile show, "Olympia", but the British price was £996, at a time when an Itala sedan cost £800 and a six-cylinder Packard £775.

It was also announced that the Stratford factory would be relocated to a Canadian site closer to Buffalo and an American holding company, Brooks Steam Motors Inc. was established.

The New York Times reported the display of the bus on October 14, 1929, two weeks before the Stock Market Crash which heralded the Great Depression.

On December 15 & 16, 1931, an unreserved auction sale was held at the Stratford factory and the entire contents of the plant were sold.

By 1933, the factory was listed as the home of Cataract-Sharpe, a glassware manufacturer, and Brooks Steam Motors Inc. was dissolved by the New York State Division of Corporations on December 15, 1936.

The Brooks factory in Stratford reverted to the city and was used for storage until World War II, when an upholstery company bought it.