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Port Jefferson's Early Auto Glory

By Rhoda Amon | Staff Writer

THAT PORT JEFFERSON didn't become Detroit -- or Indianapolis -- cannot be blamed on a lack of effort by Francis Maurice Richard. Richard, a Frenchman, came to Port Jefferson in 1909 and began a one-man automobile industry. He was convinced that the one-cylinder car was the way to go, having seen ``one lungers'' win European hill climbs.

Richard himself had picked up gold medals in Paris in 1900 for the first two-cycle engine ever built and in St. Louis in 1904 for his patented carburetor. Then as now, says Port Jefferson village historian Robert Sisler, ``Everyone was sure foreign cars were better than American cars.''

In his factory, Richard constructed a car he called the Only, and to prove its mettle, he organized a hill climb in 1910 that brought the whole pioneer car world to Port Jefferson. Henry Ford came with his entry, which finished 16th. The one-cylinder, 12-hp Only had no chance against four-cylinder competitors but did win the cheers of local boosters as it chugged up East Broadway. (For years after, people wanting to buy new cars would test-drive them up the East Broadway hill.)

Though not much of a climber, the Only, with its enormous cylinder, reportedly reached speeds of 60 mph and was advertised at $700. But it had to be pushed to start and had a bad habit of blowing its babbitt, or cylinder head, Sisler said. Only four Onlys were built. Richard later built a four-cylinder Metropole, which proved too costly to produce in a small factory.

Though he folded production in 1914, Richard had succeeded in making Port Jefferson a hub of the infant motorcar industry. Another designer, Finley Robertson Porter, bought the factory to build his dream car, the F.R.P. With a price tag of $5,000 for the car plus $5,000 for the coach by Brewster of Long Island City, the F.R.P. was beyond almost everyone's means. Richard's auto factory became a lace mill and was recently torn down.