Brief History of Packard

The Packard Story begins in the 1820s shortly after the establishment of Warren as the "capital of the Connecticut Western Reserve."

Warren Packard, son of Lordstown's first postmaster William Packard, came to the village of Warren in the 1850s just as an era of new business and industrial growth was underway. Hardware stores, lumber and planing mills, hotels, and an iron/rolling mill manufactory all soon carried the Packard banner during the years that Packard and his wife raising their two sons and three daughters.

The sons, William Doud Packard and James Ward Packard, put their college training and business experience to practical use with the establishment of the Packard Electric Company in 1890, the year Warren entered the "age of electricity."

The first Packard Motor Car was built in Warren in 1899 at the Packard Electric Company's subsidiary plant, the New York and Ohio Company. Manufacture of a successful automobile brought about the formation of the Ohio Automobile Company, which evolved into the Packard Motor Car Company in 1902.

One of the early cars, the 1903 Model F, was sent out on a transcontinental journey that year to test and market the durability of the Packard Motor Car in a trip from California to New York City. The famous endurance run of this car, dubbed "Old Pacific," was recreated in 1983. The "Old Pacific," along with an exhibit of Packard Motor Car memorabilia, is on display at the museum.

In 1911, due to the Packard brothers' success, Warren became the first city in the United States to light its streets with incandescent bulbs. The Packard Electric Company made incandescent bulbs and other electrical products. With the building of the Packard Motor Car came the necessity of developing an improved electrical system for the automobile. The production of high quality Packard cable became a dominant part of the Packard brothers' operation.

Packard Electric became a division of General Motors Corporation in 1932 and is known today as Delphi Packard Electric Systems. From those early days as the leader in producing vehicle wiring systems, Delphi Packard Electric has built and maintained global recognition for excellence in this field.