Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Buffalo’s George N. Pierce Company began building automobiles in 1901 after earlier turns making household goods and bicycles. The first Motorette was modest, but the firm soon aimed higher: large, lavish cars for buyers who considered “transportation” far too ordinary a word. In 1908, Pierce Motor Company adopted the name Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company.

From its Buffalo headquarters and factory at Elmwood and Great Arrow avenues, Pierce-Arrow built a reputation on costly engineering, heavyweight luxury, and its unmistakable fender-integrated headlamps. The Great Arrow helped establish the marque’s prestige in the 1900s, and Pierce-Arrows later carried presidents, diplomats, industrialists, and anyone else with sufficient nerve—and funds—to order one.

Studebaker acquired controlling interest in 1928, while Pierce-Arrow retained separate engineering and manufacturing operations. When Studebaker entered receivership, Buffalo investors purchased the business in 1933; it was reorganized as Pierce-Arrow Motor Corporation. The dramatic Silver Arrow appeared that same year, a streamlined future machine arriving just in time for the Depression to ruin the guest list.

Our Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company collection celebrates Buffalo-built automotive grandeur: the colossal grilles, the sculpted fenders, and the glorious belief that a car should arrive like a private yacht with headlights. These are artifacts from an era when luxury motoring had absolutely no interest in being subtle.