Creators of the Classic City: Rex Bartlett

The 1915 Bartlett Model A-2 Roadster, retailed at $665. It is not known if any Bartlett cars still exist today.

At one time, Stratford had a place in the early days of the thriving automobile manufacturing business. Reginald Cleveland (Rex) Bartlett, an imaginative Stratford engineer, successfully designed, built and marketed several of his inventions. One of those was, for a time, a revolutionary automobile, a car with air suspension and four-wheel brakes.

Most cars had two-wheel brakes only, and they were mechanical; there was no power assist. The pressure applied in braking depended on the pressure a driver could apply to the brake pedal. If a driver was going a little too fast and had to make a panicked stop for some reason, it could be interesting.

Bartlett's car was tested in public in 1913 in front of the Royal Alexandria Theatre in Toronto. The four-wheel brake system worked so well that when the car was brought to an abrupt stop in front of the theatre, 26 other cars behind it that were part of "the parade," ran into each other. American car manufacturers, concerned about competition from the Bartlett car, are said to have offered Rex a million dollars for his invention, but he turned them down.

Instead, he opened the Canadian Bartlett Automobile Co. Ltd. in Toronto. In its first two years, the company built 100 vehicles. With need to increase his output, in 1916 Bartlett bought a partially finished furniture factory at 212 Norfolk St. in Stratford.

In 1916, 200 more cars were built in the Stratford plant. As well, the output included a few Bartlett trucks, which were built on the automobile chassis. But it all came to an abrupt end in 1917. The world was at war, and many of the U.S. manufacturers that Bartlett relied upon for machined parts for his cars, had all their civilian contracts cancelled by the U.S. government so they could manufacture war materials.

Bartlett was forced to declare bankruptcy and close down his operations. In total, 600 Bartlett cars were produced. It is not known if any Bartlett cars still exist. As recently as the 1980s, a 1917 Bartlett was in the collection of Gordon E. Smith in Ottawa.

Bartlett's son, Edward Morley, operated a riding school and stables in the former car plant on 212 Norfolk Street, and in the 1980s he ran the Bartlett Restaurant in the same building. Today it is the home of Rover's Ranch Dog Daycare and Boarding facility.

This article is taken from Creators of the Classic City: www.streetsofstratford.ca.

“Creators of the Classic City” is an ongoing Times series written by Paul Wilker, co-author of the e-book of the same name by him and Gord Conroy. Interested readers can find the free book online at https://online.fliphtml5.com/ypken/pqiv/.