Charles Davenport (manufacturer)

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Charles Davenport (May 25, 1812 – February 14, 1903) was a Massachusetts businessman who built passenger railroad cars. He was born in Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts, and learned to build coaches and carriages. He started his own business in 1832 in Cambridge, and in 1834 his firm Davenport & Bridges began making railroad cars. For a while the company also built locomotives. Davenport’s firm was a pioneer in the United States and for 22 years was the largest car maker in the country, with factories in Cambridgeport and, from 1840 to 1850, in Piermont and Newburg, New York.

He built his first railroad cars for the Boston and Worcester Railroad in early 1835. They looked like a long omnibus with four wheels and seated 24, with a central door on either side and a long central aisle. The car was turned around on a turntable at the end of each trip. Later cars had seats with reversible backs so passengers didn’t have to turn around. In 1837 he added entrance doors and steps at the ends of the car to allow passage from car to car. In 1838–1839 he built the first 8-wheel car seating 60, and in 1840 the first 16-wheel car seating 76.

In 1849 business difficulties reduced his wealth, but he recovered in the following years. He retired in 1856 after building more than $4,000,000 worth of cars for more than fifty railroads in the United States and Cuba. In retirement he traveled widely and supported public improvements around Boston, including an early plan for the Boston Back Bay park and improvements to the Charles River embankment in Cambridge. He died in Watertown, Massachusetts, on February 14, 1903.