The "Charles Schutte Body Corporation: Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Finishing my story about Lancaster coachbuilder Charles Schutte.  John Calvin Schutte was born in Pennsylvania in 1857 and married Stella Steele of Lancaster County, PA.  They had four children with Charles being the second born.  

Charles Schutte

Charles later formed the Schutte Body Company around 1910.  Although not one of the largest body companies, they earned a reputation for their commercial work - mostly buses.  Charles employed about 35 mechanics in his coachbuilding shop.  Little is known of the firm’s early years.   They were best known for their conservative closed bodies whose interiors were trimmed in rococo-style carved wood and flowered upholstery.  In 1918, after bodying the prototype, Schutte would provide all the coachwork, over the next two years, for the short-lived Argonne car from Jersey City, New Jersey. This exposure to automobile bodies lead to the opportunity to produce a small run of production bodies for the newly introduced Duesenberg Straight Eight.  

The Schutte Body Company at 616 South West End Avenue.

One of the features the Schutte company was known for was their own line of disc wheels.  The disc wheels were comprised of 22-guage steel with large cast-aluminum hubcaps.  These discs would fit either a wood or wire wheel and were priced at $75 for a set of four.   If you wanted the discs nickel-plated, that would cost an additional $5 a wheel while painted discs added another $10 per disc.  

This advertisement show the location of their first
shop at 137 East Marion Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

They also manufactured a small series of taxicab bodies during the mid-twenties.  They built or modified a few aircraft bodies on rotary-powered airframes.  They were known to have made bodies for the Rolls-Royce Phantom II as well as a salon body for the Bentley.  

One of the Schutte car bodies shown in front of the
City Hall in the square in downtown Lancaster, PA.

They made bodies for a small number of Cadillac, Franklin, Marmon, Oldsmobile and Packard cars.  In 1926, represen- tatives of the Schutte Body Company tried to purchase the Blue Ribbon Company, but Lancaster stockholders found out that the plan was to close the Lancaster plant and the stockholders didn't want that.  

Another downtown Lancaster photograph with a Schutte car.

Ended up that Mr. Schutte and his treasurer were arrested for stock fraud.  Before long the company went out of business.  Today there are perhaps a handful of Schutte-bodied vehicles that still remain.  One example is the Oldsmobile Turtle Deck Speedster.  It had a hand-built aluminum body riding on an ash frame.  

The Oldsmobile Turtle Deck Speedster when it was on
display at the Lancaster Historical Society.

Inside was a cigar holder, windless ashtray, stop watch and matchstick holder mounted on the large steering wheel, and an unusual dash light with cut glass colored crystals.  On the running boards were dual spotlights.  The car had 26-inch wheels with their famous discs.  In the back, the body came to a point like a canoe.  

Rear photograph of the car.

A spare tire was mounted behind the rear of the body, but in front of the rear bumper.  Allegedly the car was used to run moonshine during Prohibition.  My trip to the Lancaster County Historical Society back in 2015 gave me a chance to see this beautiful car.  I have included a few of those photos once again for you to see.  On August 11, 1926 the People's Trust Company of Lancaster was appointed temporary receiver of the real estate for the Schutte Company; later made permanent receiver on September 18.   The building on South West End Ave. would be sold on May 27, 1927 for $35,000 to a new owner.  The Charles Schutte Company would continue to build cars, but I couldn't find a location for the business.  

Label on the body of the car.

I did find a story telling that in December of 1929  Schutte-Sefwin Inc. was organized to do designing and engineering work for automobile manufac- turers of passenger car bodies.  Mr. Schutte was designated as the technical head of the concern.  By 1930 he was a resident of New York as per the 1930 Census.  

The famous disc wheels they were known to produce.

On June 27, 1931 there no longer was a Schutte Body Corp.  Mr . Schutte died on May 7, 1958 at the age of 64.  The secrets of his success have vanished with his passing with the only remembrance of his company being the apartment building on South West End Ave. and the few remaining cars he built that are still in existence.  Not much left as a remembrance of one of the best coachbuilders in the United States.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Photo of the DusenbergA Schutte Sedan

An early advertisement for the Schutte bodies and disc wheels.