Brown Motor Company
During the early 1930s, Walter Brown Jr operated the Brown Motor Company in Trafford, lots 508 and 510 Brinton Avenue, the present-day location of Nigro’s Cleaners. Walter moved to Trafford when he was 13 years old, the child of a broken marriage, he was primarily supported by his grandfather who gave him the financial means to open a garage in the midst of the Great Depression. The business survived for about seven years.
Walter was born in Wilkinsburg to parents Walter Sr & Louisa Crosby-Brown. Despite Walter’s father having a well-paying job as a clerk for Mellon & Company’s Bank in Pittsburgh, he was accused of desertion and non-support when his son was just 7 years old. Louisa Crosby Brown sued her husband for divorce in 1910, and the common pleas court granted the divorce in 1911 for “willful and malicious desertion.”
Louisa and her son Walter moved in with her parents, George & Martha Crosby, then living on Kirkpatrick Street in North Braddock. George Crosby was a prominent citizen of North Braddock, once serving as pension clerk in the general offices of the Edgar Thompson Works.
(Above) Auburn 6085 Sedan-1930 (McKean Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia).
In 1916, George & Martha Crosby moved into Trafford, purchasing the home at 434 Fairmont Avenue when Walter was just 13 years old. A few years later, Walter would begin working as an apprentice in the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company.
The interior of the Gordon Wiser garage was taken from the Trafford 75th Anniversary Souvenir Book. This would become the Brown Motor Company in 1930.
By January 1930, Walter Brown, now 26 years old, began advertising in the newspapers as an authorized representative of the Pittsburgh Auburn Company. His grandfather, now a widower, purchased a working garage from Gordon & Linnie Wiser for the sum of $15,500. Walter Brown began operations as the Brown Motor Company. Within four months of the purchase, George Crosby, the grandfather, passed away, leaving his daughter Louisa the sole heir. This is an important fact, considering that the pension checks for George Crosby would have ceased shortly after the purchase of the garage, placing full financial responsibility on Walter to help his mother maintain two mortgages, one on the home and one on the business.
By May 1937, the Brown family was in financial distress, and Louisa Brown lost both the home on Fairmont and the garage on Brinton through a Sheriff Sale. Walter and his mother left Trafford and began renting a home in Greensburg. Walter registered for the draft in 1942 and was then working as a salesman at Ponsetto's Sales & Service Station in East McKeesport. He served in the Army stateside for five months, separating from service out of the Mississippi Ordnance Plant in Flora, MS. He returned to Greensburg where he lived with his mother until her passing in 1961. Walter Brown never married and passed away in October 1976. He is buried next to his mother and grandparents in Braddock Cemetery, Braddock PA.
(Above) 434 Fairmont Avenue once owned by George & Martha Crosby, and the residence of Walter & Louisa Brown.
(Above) Nigro’s Cleaners is located on lots 508 and 510 Brinton Avenue, the former location of the Brown Motor Company.
