 
Like many early auto makers, Robert Craig Hupp got experience with the Olds Motor Works and Ford Motor Co. before building a prototype car and organizing the Hupp Motor Car Co. with a rented factory at 345 Bellevue Avenue to begin production. The first "Hupmobile" was shown at the Detroit Automobile Show in February, 1909. It had the seat positioned as far rearward as possible and had a patented three-point suspension, making it comfortable for two large people. Over 1,500 Hupmobiles were sold in 1909, and over 5,000 in 1910. Hupp invested his personal capital in a number of supplier companies and wanted to expand Hupp Motor Car Company, similar to General Motors, but his investors and associates were vehemently opposed to overextending the new company. In August 1911 Robert Hupp sold his stock to the company's officers with the intention of producing another Hupmobile through his own Hupp Corporation. But Hupp Motor Car Co. filed a lawsuit to prevent him from using the Hupp name on a car with a gasoline automobile. The main Detroit Hupp Jefferson Avenue plant was enlarged in 1924 to 1,570,000 square feet of floor space, and over 250,000,000 square feet with subsidiaries counted. By 1928, sales reached over 65,000. Sales plunged after the stock market crash. For 1934, Raymond Loewy designed beautiful aerodynamic Hupmobiles with faired-in headlamps and three-piece windshields. But the company was in a shambles. Production was suspended in late 1935. The tooling for the front drive Cord 810/812 was purchased to use for the rear-wheel drive Hupmobile and John Tjaarda, who designed the Lincoln Zephyr, was brought in to adapt the design for the Hupmobile. The result was the beautiful Skylark, now a collector car. But it couldn't save Hupp. In September, 1939, the Hupp Corp. entered into an agreement with the Graham-Paige Company, which would build cars for both companies using the former Cord tooling. After production of over 500,000 Hupmobiles, the last Skylark rolled off the line during the week of July 8, 1940, using another company's obsolete body and assembled in a competitor's plant. Source: Detroit News
 
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